Northern Appalachian coal just hit $110/ton. In 2007, it bottomed out at less than $45/ton, meaning the price has nearly tripled in ONE YEAR.
Northern Appalachian coal just hit $110/ton. In 2007, it bottomed out at less than $45/ton, meaning the price has nearly tripled in ONE YEAR.
The price of Appalachian coal has now officially quintupled in less than 8 years. In April 2007, just a year ago, Northern Appalachian coal was $45/ton. As you can see, for the last three years, Central Appalachian coal from SWVA and Southern WV,usually tracks fairly closely to Northern Appalachian coal. If anything, our coal tends to be slightly more expensive.
This is a big deal not only for investors who want to see new coal-fired power plants constructed and more mountaintop removal coal mines in Virginia and elsewhere, but $100/ton coal in Appalachia may signal a death knell for coal-fired electricity in general.
Remember of the 59 coal-fired plants that have been defeated over the last year, over 40 of them were pulled by the utilities themselves because of the extreme cost.
Governor Kaine, can Virginia ratepayers afford this? Can we afford to pay for a new, dirty, unneccesary coal-fired power plant that will increase demand for coal in a county where 25% of all the land has been destroyed by mountaintop removal?
Not to mention, its not just Governor Kaine that needs to answer these questions. The northern and central Appalachian states (PA, WV, KY) are where the Presidential candidates are right now and we need to hear how they plan to deal with mountaintop removal and coal-fired power plants in the face of skyrocketing coal prices.
This is the Northern and Central Appalachian coal basin, where 90%+ of Appalachian coal comes from.
A lot of this coal is mined using aggressive extraction methods like mountaintop removal mining, which has already flattened more than 474 of the worlds oldest mountains.
The writing has been on the market wall now for a long time. The NYT had already reported a similar price trend in Central Appalachian coal over the last year, and we've seen an unchanging long term trend in the price of Appalachian coal.
