Good evening, here in the states the demand for electricity is way down due to the fact we do not have the manufacturing base like we had in the 40's thru the 60's.
Can you imagine how many tons of coal was burn't in Pittsburgh at the steel mills in a 24 hour period !!!!!
We have become more efficient with electricity using LED's bulbs instead of a Mercury Vapor and the standard flood light.
Household and Industrial Appliances have become for efficient. All these items drop the demand for electricity which means less coal is needed.
Solar and Wind although may look great on the surface will never be the answer when it comes to powering the grid here in the States. Again these items are not cheap to maintain either and come with some dire environmental impact also.
Many coal suppliers have been running on exporting coal to other countries but that has come to a screeching halt.
I deal with several coal companies in Australia and they always say the Australian economy is always 3 year behind the US.
It is coming true and the Australians are having trouble finding places to export their coal also.
All the hype about the natural gas was just that hype, Several power plants that have switched over to natural gas are finding that this new fuel comes with it's own set of headaches and the truth be known it is not any cleaner because they are burning more cubic feet of gas to create the same Btu's that they did with 1 ton of coal.
A power plant in Clearfield County PA has switched from coal to natural gas and had a test fire in their first unit and found they could not keep the line pressure up to continue burning the natural gas.
Oh well back to the drawing board for this project.
Coal and coal producers are going to have to figure out a way of reinventing themselves so they look better to the environmentalist that are constantly beating them down.
It is going to be a long hard road I'm afraid.
