WASHINGTON, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- The natural gas price explosion is resuscitating interest in U.S. coal interests, long the somewhat despised member of the hydrocarbon fuel family.
Part of the reason for coal's resurgence is natural gas prices, now selling -- on a Btu-equivalent basis -- for about $7 per gallon, Stateline.org said Monday.
Another reason coal has acquired a shine is that United States has one of the world's most abundant supplies of coal, with states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia as well as various western states rich in commercial reserves.
Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell is pushing state-backed financing to transform older power plants into ones that produce and burn synthetic natural gas made from coal through a chemical process called gasification. Using gasified coal can reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming by as much as 30 percent, Rendell said.
Separately, the state is supporting a private venture to build a $612 million power plant that not only will produce electricity, but also will convert some of the state's 250 million tons of waste coal into 40 million gallons of synthetic diesel fuel per year, a process called liquefaction.
