Coal prices rise sharply By Knight Ridder Tribune News Wire just text

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- In a sign that there's no safe port in the current energy storm, coal prices are roiling, too.

For 15 years the price of coal barely budged, providing cheap electricity even when oil and natural gas prices rose. But since February the price of coal from the Powder River Basin in Wyoming and Montana has nearly tripled.

In a majority of states, where electric utilities can automatically pass fuel costs to customers, the effect will be felt quickly. Increases in electric rates of 20 percent and more are eventually possible.

Coal is plentiful in the United States, and even at current prices it's a cheaper fuel for electricity than natural gas. In February, a ton of coal from the Powder River Basin could be bought for $4.50. This week it reached $13.

http://web.aberdeennews.com/content/aberdeen/2001/05/12/front/2453280.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 12, 2001

Answers

This figures. A greater demand for other energy types would translate to a greater demand for coal, too. This will give the radical environmentalists something new to think about.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), May 12, 2001.

radical environmentalism?

it's "radical" to level much of the mountains of southern west virginia ("mountaintop removal") to power billboard lights, office buildings lit up all night and similar wastes.

the "phantom loads" (use of electricity when off) of VCRs and TVs is comparable to the electric demand of Greece

it's radical to force a huge experiment on the Earth -- the alteration of atmospheric chemistry by burning deposits that took hundreds of millions of years to form

how fascinating to see the spread of droughts, extreme storms, melting glaciers, thunderstorms in the Arctic, etc. how sad that some still refuse to believe their own eyes

this message typed on a solar powered computer

-- mark (mrobinowitz@igc.org), May 13, 2001.