Coal may be the new oil, says the big end of town

Coal may overtake oil as the best-performing energy investment. That, at least, is the emerging consensus from a diversity of speculators, investors and giant corporations, including Wilbur Ross, the billionaire bankruptcy specialist, BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, and Merrill Lynch & Co, the third-largest US securities firm.

Because “coal is the cheapest, most abundant energy source”, from North America to China, “the surge in oil has encouraged people to plan new coal-fuelled power plants and to start using conversion technologies such as coal-to-diesel”, says Richard Price, an investment banker at Westminster Securities in St Louis and a former vice-president at Peabody Energy Corp, the largest US coal producer.
The Age