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One of the reports I heard in 2006 said that China is building a new coal fired power plant every week ...for the
next seven years.
There are coal veins in North Dakota that have been smoldering for years. Mentioned by Lewis and Clark, they were burning in the '50's when I saw them in the Badlands National Park area and likely also eons before L&C. Supposedly they were ignited by lightning, since many shallow veins appear on the ground surface and/or cutbanks that were washed out by clay erosion. The result of the burn in a bed of clay produces a red rock called scoria (
https://www.dmr.nd.gov/ndgs/ndnotes/ndn13_h.htm ) that is commonly used as road bed in local areas. The park is full of red rock. Some ND brick plants use lignite coal and local clay to produce quality manmade brick.
I also been told that one of the reasons power plants don't like to stockpile more coal is that they have to turn the pile every so often to prevent spontaneous combustion that occurs merely because of moisture in the coal, some of it occuring during mining and some from outside storage. Hmmm. Like storing wet hay.
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