International demand for Kentucky coal set to get even bigger

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Just yesterday, a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted that over the next five years, demand for coal will be up in every region of the world except for here in the U.S. where abundant supplies of natural gas will overtake coal as an energy source. This report is in line with recent developments which have seen coal demand significantly increase over the past year in rapidly industrializing countries such as China and India, as well as more conventionally green areas in Europe.

According to IEA Executive Director, Maria van der Hoeven, "Coal's share of the global energy mix continues to grow each year, and if no changes are made to current policies, coal will catch oil within a decade."

A-ha, and there's the catch: "if no changes are made to current policies."

Unfortunately for Appalachia's energy sector, which recently signed a massive deal with India to send 25 million tons of coal to the subcontinent, there have been very significant changes in policy. The Environmental Protection Agency's newest mandates has virtually guaranteed that no new coal plants can be established. For example, their Maximum Achievable Control Technology rules will eventually force all coal power plants to implement technology of the greenest power plants in the nation, regardless of the economic costs to the states. The price tag is $10 billion - per year.

The Big Sandy plant in Louisa, KY is the most recent to announce its closure after being unable to afford the $1 billion price tag for the new equipment mandated by the EPA.

Because of the EPA, not natural gas, Kentuckians will be severely handicapped in exporting and profiting from their most economically viable natural resource.