78 trillion from ditching coal

Obviously, assumptions were made, in projecting out to a number like this. But, and unlike what you see from, say, right-wing propaganda mills (sorry, “conservative think tanks‘), they’re legitimate, fact-based assumptions.

The world would generate $78trn in net ‘social benefits’ by replacing coal with renewable energy, according to a new working paper from Imperial College Business School.

The net gain in switching from coal to renewable energy sources would be equivalent to about 1.2% of global GDP per year until the end of the century, according to the study. Per tonne of coal, that would represent a net gain of around $125 and $55 per tonne of avoided coal emissions. - Energy Monitor

Vultures target failing Big Coal

One apt term for this situation is "fraught." Scenarios in which, for example, asshole parasites send minimum-wage temp workers down into dangerous mines are by no means inconceivable. On the contrary, they'll do it in an attosecond, if they think they can get away with it.

For years, the coal companies operating on the high plains here were among the best known in the world: Peabody Energy Corp., Rio Tinto, Arch Coal Inc. But as the coal industry contracts, the former giants are being replaced by a different brand of mining firm: virtual unknowns...

Local mine suppliers, already burned by previous bankruptcies, are wary of extending credit to firms they do not know. State and local tax collectors face the prospect of declining tax revenues. Looming over it all is the question of whether the new companies will be able to afford hundreds of millions in reclamation costs needed to clean up some of the largest coal mines in America.

          "It tells you a lot about the coal industry right now," said Robert Godby, an economics professor who studies the industry at the University of Wyoming. "These large mining conglomerates have been replaced by what some people call vulture capitalists. They have less experience; they have less transparency. It used to be what was in minerals' interest was in Wyoming's interest. Now, given where the coal industry is, Wyoming has to be careful about protecting itself."- E & E News