Have coal companies been ripping Americans off even more than we already knew?

from Grist:



Have coal companies been ripping Americans off even more than we already knew?
By Philip Bump


The coal industry, for as much as it whines and frets and fake-cries about how oppressive the government is, gets a pretty sweet deal. We’ve noted before than companies pay 25 cents a ton for coal from public lands and then can turn around and sell it for $35 a ton. (We’ve also mentioned that they often sell that coal to China, meaning we’re subsidizing the world’s largest consumer of coal, but that’s a whole other issue.)

What makes this so much more galling is that the weepy coal companies might not even be paying for all of the coal they’re extracting. From The Hill:



The National Mining Association suggests that the Reuters report was inaccurate. Of course, the NMA also went out of its way to propagate the “war on coal” nonsense, so it can be ignored. .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://grist.org/news/have-coal-companies-been-ripping-americans-off-even-more-than-we-already-knew/