Even in Coal Country, the Fight for an Industry

Has the coal industry been left for dead?  It certainly looks and feels that way.  With natural gas still near historic lows and new supply coming on daily, coal can;t really compete with gas on a cost basis let alone an environmental basis (as it appears today).

But as this NYT piece points out, just because the coal is not being used here in the US it does have value in other parts of the world.  As fast as coal plants are being shuttered here in the US they are opening new plants around the world, namely China.

• Environmental groups, after years of targeting coal plants as leading sources of air pollution, have moved in for the kill. “We never thought we would get to a place where coal plants are falling so fast,” said Bruce Nilles, the director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal initiative. It has been aided by $50 million from Mr. Bloomberg, who views the campaign as part of a public health effort, and $26 million from an odd bedfellow: the top official of a natural gas company.
• The environmentalists figure that if they can shut down a third of the nation’s coal burning plants by 2020, emissions of greenhouse gases in the United States could be cut at least as much as they would have under a landmark 2009 climate bill that died in Congress.