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Politics : Politics of Energy
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To: Eric who wrote (23923)10/20/2010 8:22:55 PM
From: Jorj X Mckie2 Recommendations  Read Replies (1) of 86355
 
Eric,
you don't understand the coal industry at all. Which is ok except that you try to present yourself as knowledgeable about it. The reason that the lower quality coal is more prevalent isn't because the higher quality coal is more scarce. It is an accident of history. The east coast was settled before the west. The east has bigger population centers and therefore the local demand was higher at an earlier date than it was for the more sparsely populated areas west of the Mississippi.

The reason that lower BTU sub-bituminous coal has surpassed higher BTU bituminous coal is that the Sub-bituminous coal is just so damned easy to get to and there is so damned much of it. In the Powder River Basin the coal seams are often 60' thick and sometimes up to 100' thick. And it is often less than 100' below the surface. While western coal has a lower BTU rating it has one benefit over eastern coal. It was formed in fresh water environments and therefore has very low sulfur content.

If China thought that coal was going to be unavailable in 20 years, they wouldn't have plans to build coal-fired plants at a rate of 2 per month for the next twenty years. They'd certainly stop building plants short of the date that they run out of coal.
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