However, coal is declining in usage because of the enormous expense of cleaning up emissions from coal burning. That's why American expansion of natural gas supplies is a huge boon because we will have way lower air pollution due to the far lower cost of cleaning up emissions from burning natural gas.
Why do you think China wants to start importing natural from Russia soon? That will allow them to finally phase out the use of coal in electric power generation, which means way cleaner cities.
I've been approached by corporate recruiters looking to fill senior management positions in several new coal mines around North America.
Coal is losing out to natural gas as a fuel for electric power generation, but demand is growing dramatically for metallurgical coal for steel production.