Coal is a non-factor as a short term source for anything much more than a coal burning stove. There are significant lignite reserves in NE Texas but production was stopped when power plants were switched from coal to natural gas. This started in the 1980s. The strategy was to construct a coal fired power plant in the middle of a lignite deposit then strip mine around the plant and haul lignite overland to the plant. After strip mining, the restored land was absolutely beautiful with rolling hills, grasses and trees. Cow paradise. When the lignite hauling distance became too great based on economics, the power plant was decommissioned and demolished. The lignite in Texas is pretty dirty with high amounts of sulfur and the flue gas scrubbing technology back in the day was a nightmare to operate.
The first pilot plant I operated washed lignite to remove free dirt, which is where most of the sulfur is tied up. After blowing through a million $$$ of equipment destroying it, I learned the value of heavy and expensive industrial grade equipment instead of lesser equipment made to a low price point. Glad I wasn't the person that specified the cheap stuff. This is called learning from someone else’s mistakes instead of your own.
Interesting stuff...thanks.
I’ve read that China is building 100s of coal fired gen plants because they don’t really give a sh*t about air quality or fake globull warming and they want to transition to electric cars because they don’t have much oil.
So there may be plenty of oil for the rest of us.