I love coal, especially all that glistening black bituminous that Illinois is full of. I've burned millions of tons of it at power plants around the country so I've enjoyed your series in the Journal Star on this wonderful resource.
This suggested revitalization of the coal industry; however, only serves to point out the mismanagement of our country's energy resources. The US has plenty of coal, especially in Illinois and yet there are only 3000 working coal miners left in Illinois. This is not the result of an isolated example of government miscalculation. There are other underutilized energy resource. You can generate coal fired power (even with a full compliment of environmentally acceptable scrubbers) for 22 mills/kwh and nuclear power for only 8 mills/kwh yet the government killed the nuclear power business dead. I sat in the room when the head of the DOE said, "You're not getting your permit for the Breeder Reactor, the President believes and has said, 'The French will sell it to us if we need it.' " There went $1.4 Billion in research and equipment (still laying in a field in Tennessee) and there was our new energy policy - We will rely on kindness of others. On the French, on the Middle East, on Venezuela, ...
As a result of these repeated policies of no policy, millions of cubic feet of natural gas and millions of gallons of oil are needlessly burned to make electricity while cheaper and better alternatives are ignored. Hats off to the Peoria Journal Star for pointing out the resources Illinois possesses - and that includes what used to be a very enviable record of expert nuclear power production - but it isn't going to help. Congress is way to busy hunting the next election to bother with the countries energy problems.
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