Quote:
Originally Posted by twobjshelbys
Be it known that the only way this crap happens is because the people who dreamed it up were appointed by the people who were elected. That would be the same crowd that has deemed coal to be an inappropriate fuel and will eliminate an entire industry in the next 10 years. This can be fixed in November.
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What you are hearing is the ramifications of cheap clean natural gas taking over the coal industry. Logistically speaking, getting coal from the ground to the power plant is a huge undertaking. Compare that to NG where you pop a hole in the ground, hook the gas line up to the main, and it is ready to go. Add to that Europe was a huge buyer of US coal, but in the last few years, they have stopped buying due to the air quality issues. What you are hearing about has more to do with the coal industry asking for massive handouts from the government to prop up their industry so market forces don't put them out of business. Coal production has dropped in the last 7 years, but that is more related to natural gas production being up. We are still putting out more coal that we did 20 years ago.