As oil prices rise, nations revive coal mining

International Herald Tribune ^ | 5/22/08 | Martin Fackler

[Dawnsblood]

But after decades of seemingly terminal decline, Japan's coal country is stirring again. With energy prices reaching record highs — oil rose above $135 a barrel on Thursday — Japan's high-cost mines are suddenly competitive again, and demand for their coal is booming. Production has jumped to its highest in nearly four decades, creating a sensation rarely felt in these mining communities: hope.

"We are seeing a flicker of light after long darkness," said Michio Sakurai, the mayor of Bibai, on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido. "We never imagined coal would actually make a comeback."

Soaring commodity prices have had distorting effects across the global economy, driving up food prices and prompting fears of future energy shortages. But they have been an unanticipated boon to the coal producing regions of countries like Japan that had written off coal mining as a relic of the Industrial Revolution.

In Bibai, once a thriving cultural center that had a ballet troupe and five cinemas showing first-run Hollywood movies in its heyday in the 1950s, the population shrank to 27,800, from 92,000. As mining jobs evaporated, they left behind rows of abandoned clapboard-fronted stores that give some neighborhoods the air of a ghost town.

Oil prices ease a bit, but underlying tension remains While Japan's coal industry remains tiny, its revival is an example of how higher commodity prices are driving a search for resources even in some of the world's most urbanized and developed nations.

In recent months, South Korea has experienced calls to create a domestic coal industry in order to reduce dependence on imports. In the United Kingdom, where coal's decline became a symbol of withered industrial might, companies are increasing production and considering reopening at least one closed mine as demand for British coal rises.

[henkster]

Obama will talk out of both sides of his mouth. He’ll be all fuzzy for the greenies when he talks to the moonbats. He favor digging up his grandma’s turnip garden to get to coal when he talks to working class whites.

Yeah, change we can believe in. My a$$.

[Poison Pill]

Obama will talk out of both sides of his mouth. He’ll be all fuzzy for the greenies when he talks to the moonbats. He favor digging up his grandma’s turnip garden to get to coal when he talks to working class whites.

LOL. Yeah, but youtube can be a bitch.

[TLI]

Yep. It is part of the long term solution.

Explore and drill, east and west coasts and Alaska and develop the reserves contained in the Bakken Formation

Build modern technology refineries

Build Nuke power plants

Build Coal power plants

Open the clean coal deposits Klinton “closed” which contains 62 BILLION tons of environmentally safe low-sulfur coal from the Kaiparowits Plateau in Utah.

Slowly but steadily increase the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE)

But noooo, we get ethanol. And from CORN no less.

And the enviro-wackjobs demand this...

If the President were to announce this tomorrow and clearly state that due to the necessity of averting a disaster to the economy and a threat to National Security he will emplace Executive Orders that will not only immediately initialize this overall program but exempt it from excessive or unnecessary environmental regulatory agencies rules where do you think the hedge fund speculators will go, thus dropping the market price of crude by 20 - 40 bucks?

They will go straight to that new market of energy production and the companies that will build it, as a well functioning economy SHOULD be that inviting. Not only will the price start to drop immediately, the very nature of new industry gains and emerging technologies will keep the price down.

[RayChuang88]

Coal is actually quite commonly available in much of the world, and new technologies coming online in the next few years could make it a very viable source of motor fuels (in many ways, coal is almost "solidified petroleum"). That explains why it might be a good time to be in the coal business, especially given that Powder River coal from Wyoming is going to be in even MORE demand and coal from the Appalachians (sp?) are in very high demand.

[stuartcr]

Thanks, it seems a little odd, that if there is such a huge demand, we should be hearing about huge increases in pump prices, globally, but I can’t seem to find anything either.

[NeoCaveman]

From a quick google search on price of petrol per liter… Auatralia $1.60 a liter (that’s over $6 a gallon) Chek Republic Diesel Price Record. London Soaring petrol price boosts cost of Bank Holiday trips Petrol price up again - 95 passes $2 mark that’s per liter too. And South Africa

[stuartcr]

Thanks for the info.