Misinformation about coal

I would like to address some of the current misinformation about coal exporting.

The Montana Coal Council commissioned a study to attempt to document the amount of coal dust along a coal shipment rail corridor and they had trouble finding any coal dust at all. The top of the coal load is “groomed” and treated with a surfactant designed to keep all the coal in the rail car during transit.

This issue was “invented” by the environmental groups to rile up well-meaning environmentalist people and have them continue to fund these organizations. Potential coal customers in Asia have already built or are building coal-fired power plants. They are going to burn coal!

Wouldn’t it be better for the world if those plants were burning low-sulfur, high-quality Powder River Basin coal? And emitting fewer pollutants than if they were burning lesser-quality coal mined from other parts of the world.

Of course the U.S. gets the jobs associated with the mining, transportation and exporting of a commodity that we have in abundance. These are living wage jobs that support families, pay taxes, and enable communities to not only survive but to grow and prosper.

Cory Hayes

Colbert