According to Platts, there are some 13GW of thermal energy capacity, comprising mainly hard coal but some lignite and gas, already under construction in Germany.

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Russia, which is considered to be particularly vulnerable to the year 2000 problem because of a lack of preparedness, supplied 37 percent of the natural gas and Australia 30 percent of hard coal.

CNN: Utilities pose biggest worldwide Y2K threat

It seems hard to believe you can take coal so far round the world at competitive rates.

BBC: Red ink and black stuff

Further, says Peabody, world steel production is up 8% this year, requiring an added 75 million tons of extra hard and hot-burning metallurgical coal.

FORBES: Peabody Earnings Up, Coal Supercycle Just Beginning

But less hard than before, and outside the battered coal and steel belt (where the reformed Communists still do well) the economy is surprisingly strong.

ECONOMIST: The Czech Republic's politics

There is also concern about how ground water and irrigation wells will be affected: it is hard to judge how long it takes for a coal aquifer to refill.

ECONOMIST: Energy supplies

" Another in a hard hat says White House policies are "attacking the coal industry.

MSN: 'War on coal'? Why Obama might not be industry's worst enemy

Turning a solid material like coal into a liquid it sounds hard to do, and it is hard to do.

NEWYORKER: Unconventional Crude

" Or the hard-hat-wearing, improbably gorgeous models sweating it out in a coal mine to the sound of Merle Travis' "Sixteen Tons.

FORBES: GE Turns Green

But some of the most mesmerizing work space photographs in this collection belong to the lesser-known: the coal miner working nearly half a mile underground, or the two astronauts hard at work 200 miles above it.

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