In the US, Natural Gas is King; Everywhere Else It's Coal

The US is set to become the world's most prolific producer of natural gas within the next 2 years, and the largest producer of oil by 2017 -- according to the International Energy Agency.

The US is already benefiting from its rapid growth in affordable natural gas supplies. And famed Harvard historian and author, Niall Ferguson, says that as long as President Obama avoids killing the golden gas goose, the US is in for a big economic boost ahead.

Already the US has begun to move away from the use of coal to generate electricity -- helping the country to "reduce its CO2 emissions" at a time when virtually every other region of the world is increasing coal use and CO2 output.

How fast is coal use increasing outside of North America?

More than 1,000 new coal plants are planned worldwide.

...after a slight dip during the economic troubles of 2008, the global coal trade has rebounded and rose by 13 percent in 2010.

...Most new coal-fired plants will be built by Chinese or Indian companies....

...However, Germany, the UK and France remain in the top 10 importers, and coal use rose 4 percent in 2011 in Europe as prices fell and plants due to close under clean air rules use up their allotted running hours. Indonesia and Australia are the largest coal exporters, with the latter planning to triple its mine and port capacity to almost 1 billion tonnes a year.

Many developing countries, such as Guatemala, Cambodia, Morocco, Namibia, Senegal and Sri Lanka, and Uzbekistan, are planning new coal-fired plants even when they produce almost no coal at all.... _1000 New Coal Plants

There are many ways of mining, shipping, processing, and burning coal cleanly and responsibly. The US coal industry would already be using many of these clean coal methods, if not for the Obama EPA's blatant and counter-productive energy starvationism and faux environmental anti-economic biases.

Nevertheless, the rest of the world is building a huge demand for coal from the US, Australia, and wherever else coal can be found in plentiful quantities.

Eventually, with the aid of high temperature gas cooled nuclear reactors (HTGRs) and other important breakthroughs, the use of coal for conversion to chemicals, fuels, fertilisers, and other necessaries, will attract no more comment from responsible regulators and environmentalists than "a good day to you sir, madam."