Appalachian Coal breaks $100/ton

by: faithfull

Thu Apr 03, 2008 at 00:31:56 AM EDT

Northern Appalachian coal just hit $110/ton.  In 2007, it bottomed out at less than $45/ton, meaning it has nearly tripled in ONE YEAR.

In April 2007 it was $45/ton.  As you can see, for the last three years, Central Appalachian coal usually tracks fairly closely to Northern Appalachian coal. If anything, it tends to be slightly more expensive. The price of Appalachian coal has now officially quintupled in less than 8 years.

A lot of this coal is mined using aggressive extraction methods like mountaintop removal mining, which has already flattened more than 474 of the worlds oldest mountains.

The writing has been on the market wall now for a long time. The NYT had already reported a similar price trend in Central Appalachian coal and a long term trend of Appalachian coal.

This is a big deal not only for investors who want to see new coal-fired power plants constructed and more mountaintop removal coal mines, but $100/ton coal in Appalachia may signal a death knell for coal-fired electricity in general.

The northern and central Appalachian states (PA, WV, KY) are where the Presidential candidates are right now and we need to hear how they plan to deal with mountaintop removal and coal-fired power plants in the face of skyrocketing  coal prices.