Does it make more sense to extract the coal in our great western deposits and burn it in situ? To generate hydrogen there and somehow transport it to where it's needed?
Or to mine the coal and ship by rail (by barge?) to distant power and hydrogen generation plants?
"Or to mine the coal and ship by rail (by barge?) to distant power and hydrogen generation plants?"
REAL hard questions. Gasifying in-situ takes a lot of water, which most western sites are pretty short of. I suspect it would come down to whether the decision was made to actually go for the total "hydrogen economy". I think then one could justify building pipelines to the coal sources, pipe water in and hydrogen out. But it would take a really good, complete economic analysis to chose between the two cases.