"People are going to get sticker shock when they open their electricity bills this summer and next summer," said [FBR Capital Markets Research Director David] Khani. [...] The spot price of Central Appalachian coal sold to both utilities and steelmakers has tripled in the past year, with coal going to utilities rising to as much as $140 a ton from $44 a ton, and that destined to steelmakers to $300 a ton, from $100 a ton."
-- Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2008
"The structural changes driving demand much higher than supply, across all coal markets, look to be very long-lived. We are just beginning to benefit from the repricing of legacy coal supply contracts at higher levels, which could drive significant earnings increases for many years to come."
-- Gregory H. Boyce, Peabody Energy's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, July 23, 2008
Virginia officials downplayed mining's local environmental impacts, saying the commonwealth has only five surface mines and that the majority of coal burned by the plant would come from shaft mining. "That's a very small number, and they make up a small amount of acreage compared to other states," Hickey, the governor's spokesman, said.'
http://www.eenews.net/Greenwir...
From the same article, Wise County citizen Kathy Selvage.
Right now, 25 percent of our county has already been strip-mined, and 33 percent of it has been permitted for new mining activities," Selvage said. "Exactly what figure is it that you would like us to sacrifice for the energy needs of this country? Do you want us to give 50 percent of our mountains, or is it going to be 100 percent? When will it stop?"
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The story of Wise County, VA
I have concerns about mountaintop removal. We haven't done much of it here in Virginia. What I want to be sure of is that we do carbon sequestration, that we capture the carbon and sequester it, because I think its got to be at least a part of our portfolio.