I predict it won't be very long before the Germans start building Gen IV nukes !

Hey, LT are you going to reveal the "why" behind some of your stistics regarding coal ?

1. Hold on to your rocker. NG prices are going to dip, (or will if government doesn't screw with market forces) as a function of improving fracking technology and development of vast new and old fields.

2. None of which "cost increases" were due to ordinary market forces. Changing Federal regulatory climate and restrictions are driving demand down. Our coal resources are vast and our mining efficiency is measured in tons/sec.

3. You obviously think those "increases" have no connection with government-mandated rate freezes and fat subsidies for "green energy" paid through the utility system. It all came at the cost of a neglected infrastructure now threatening collapse. States hardest hit were those most dependent upon coal-fired generation. (see no. 1 above)

4. (see no. 2 above)

But perhaps you can answer this question: Why do so many think/refer to electricity in terms of a commodity, like coal, wheat or oil ? It isn't. Its potential work transmittable over distance. Just like a lake of water behind a hydro-power dam. Until/unless someone does something,( aka work) with it, the electric potential disappears over time. So why would we ever use anything but our cheapest and most restrictive fuel source to generate it ? IPOF why use any carbon fuel at all ? Cheap, clean, efficient nuclear power is readily available and could be "on line" in a decade or less with the same amount of "stimulus" as was wasted on the dying dinosaur auto industry.

Just my ordinary, basic American opinion, but why would we waste nice clean abundant natural gas to put electrical potential in the air when it has so many other more valuable applications ? OTOH, the technology for "clean" coal power generation has existed for over five decades. (Channel LBJ and a few other quiet Democrats for the "reasons why" we're not using today.) Ask the luddites why don't our urban areas don't have multiple small-footprint "cache" Gen IV plants ? Why are residents of those areas dependant upon vulnerable long distance transmission lines/grid systems when a series of local plants could supply power over super-conducting lines to substations for distribution ?

The bottom line is government, (or rather politics) has, and remains, the biggest obstacle to progress and economic prosperity in America. >Mech