“As long as natural gas is so cheap, coal mining will not make a comeback.”
I disagree.
They aren’t mutually exclusive.
Companies are capitalizing on the U.S. shale advantage. ACC is tracking more than $130 billion dollars of new investment in chemical manufacturing capacity that has been announced (since 2010) to be put in place over the next decade. Based on ACC’s analysis:
o Nearly $25 billion of investments in new plastic resin capacity is expected.
o Investments of $2.5 billion will be made to increase capacity in plastics compounding, additives and colorants, which are used to impart specific properties to resins so they can be used to make plastic products.
o New plastic products capacity will be built to consume plastic resin that is not exported. These investments will total $19.6 billion.
o The combined output from the new investments in resin, compounding and ancillary chemistries (additives, colorants, etc.) and products will be $46.8 billion.
More here: http://naturalgas.org/overview/uses-industrial/
Many Power Plants were converted to gas. They’re not going to convert back.