Forget Peak Oil for a minute. Welcome to Peak Coal. The world
could face a coal supply deficit of 33 million to 44 million
short tons (30-40 metric tons, or tonnes) this year, according
to industry officials quoted in Lloyd's List. That's as much
coal as Illinois (33 million short tons) or Texas (45 million
short tons) produced in all of 2006, according to Energy
Information Administration statistics. The looming shortage,
according to Lloyd's List has India looking to invest in new
mines in Southern Africa, and both China and Indonesia using up
export supplies to feed new domestic coal-fired power plants.
That has driven up demand for U.S. coal (and coal the world
over), which is reflected in sharply higher prices per ton of
coal since last fall. The demand spike has three obvious
implications for the environment. One, obviously, is that the
more coal the world burns the more the carbon-heavy fuel will
spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, resulting in a faster
the rate of global warming. Another is tha