MORE EXPENSIVE OIL MEANS SWITCH TO COAL

I guess we really are shipping coal to Newcastle. Because of the dramatic rise in the price of oil (graph from USA Today)

coal is a much cheaper energy source:
Gore Nightmare Wins as Europe Pays to Ship U.S. Coal (Update1)
By Christopher Martin

Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Now that the price of coal is at a historic low relative to oil, there's no stopping consumers and producers alike from embracing Al Gore's nightmare.

A ton of U.S. coal is so cheap at about $47 that European utilities will pay $50 to ship it across the Atlantic, according to Galbraith's Ltd., a 263-year-old London shipbroker. While oil and coal cost the same as recently as 1998, West Texas Intermediate crude is five times more expensive after climbing to a record $96.24 on Nov. 1.

U.S. coal prices are equal to $1.98 for each million British thermal units of energy, compared with $12.51 for fuel oil and $6.91 for natural gas, data compiled by Bloomberg show. A million British thermal units is the equivalent of eight gallons of gasoline.

Coal generates 41 percent of the world's man-made carbon dioxide emissions, blamed for the warming of the Earth's climate, Gulf of Mexico hurricanes and rising sea levels.