Coal has made the news recently by the number of mishaps in the news. Underground miners trapped and killed in the US and China, and a coal freighter stuck on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Why is this happening? It's the price of cheap energy. There is such price competition for coal around the world, that the lowest cost producers are the ones who will get the business. without regulation the price just gets pushed lower and lower and the business just gets more dangerous.  It's like what happen with oil tankers. Now we have ships with double hull to make them more resistant to leaks when a mishap occurs. The freight that struck the reef was probably trying to save a bit of fuel by taking a shortcut when it hit the reef.

Underground mining has become more dangerous since it has to compete on price, with surface mining, such as strip mining, area mining, contour mining and mountaintop removal mining. Since the product is basically the same, from one type of mining operation to another. The price has to be competitive.  In order for these more expensive mining operations to compete, They either need a technological breakthrough to make mining easier or they have to cut corners. And when you cut corners, safety is what suffers.

The question is, are we willing to put up with the outside costs? Besides the amount of CO2 and methane that is released into the atmosphere, there is also acid rain and mercury emissions that will enter the food chain. There is total ecosystem destruction with surface mining, with sulfuric acid drainage. some of the waste products in the ash are such substances as uranium, thorium and other radioactive heavy metals. Add to that the huge fly ash ponds with there concentrations of heavy metals.

Coal is not a product where you can say "buyer beware". The end users of the electricity are not the ones making the decision of who's coal they use to make their electricity. it's comparable to being able to buy cruelty free tuna. I can see it now... "all coal used to make this power was mined conscientiously and disposed of properly". That will be the day.