Production Costs, Not Natural Gas, Closed More Mines — Study
View on E&E News website"The cost to extract coal, not competition from natural gas, caused the majority of mine closures between 2002 and 2012, a new report said.
The study from think tank Resources for the Future sought to pinpoint the cause of each of the hundreds of mine closures and the resulting thousands of layoffs.
'Although there has been heated debate at all levels of government on policies affecting coal mining, little is known about the recent causes of coal mine closures or about the effects of hypothetical future policies on the sector,' wrote the authors.
Scholars included Brett Jordan, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Alaska, Anchorage; Ian Lange, assistant professor at the Colorado School of Mines; and Joshua Linn, associate professor at the University of Maryland and researcher at RFF."
