I’ve recently seen a few articles that claim that historically low coal consumption in the United States doesn’t mean much because dramatic growth in global coal consumption is inevitable. Assertions like these rely on mind-boggling (and admittedly scary) global coal-consumption growth rates. But, for all the scary numbers, analysts are missing the writing on the wall about coal development around the world: Widespread grassroots opposition, dramatically rising costs, and increasingly competitive alternatives threaten “the inevitable.” It’s time to take a closer look, because international coal is far riskier than you might think.
See http://sierraclub.typepad.com/compass/2012/05/global-coal-markets-riskier-than-you-think.html.