Sorry, Tom, I was being facetious. Also, believe it or not, there are people who actually don't know that natural gas is a fossil fuel.

Anyway, the push to replace coal-fired power plants with natural gas ones is ideological and political, not economic. It's all part of President Obama's war on coal, in which his EPA threatened huge fines daily for operating coal-fired plants.

The chart below shows the cost of natural gas vs equivanent-energy cost of coal. Turns out Appalachian coal is about the same price as natural gas. Powder River Basin coal is about 1/3 the cost of both. So, even with the current abundance (and low prices) for natural gas, it is still significantly more expensive to produce electricity with it than coal from the Powder River Basin.

But aside from the cost, another aspect of using natural gas for electricity production that I find disturbing and short-sighted, is that both coal and natural gas are finite resources. Yes, we currently have lots of both, but eventually they'll run out. Natural gas is a wonderful fuel for heating homes, cooking and can even be used for transportation. Coal is pretty much worthless for all of that, but wonderful for producing electricity. To me it makes a lot more sense to use the abundant coal resources for what they're best at and thereby save the natural gas for important uses that coal can't easily fill.

What’s a billionaire elitist to do?

Suppose you are a billionaire, from a long line of super wealthy elitist ancestors, who is getting up in age. You remember the good ol’ days, when you sat in air-conditioned comfort in the back of your Rolls while your chauffer whisked you through the almost empty streets of LA and up the coast highway to those fantastic parties at Hurst’s castle. You remember the wonderful trips to the beaches on the French Riviera in your private yacht. Those marinas and beaches were the exclusive domain for you and your kind. You remember the Hamptons and Palm Beach as they used to be.

Everything has changed now, the rabble are everywhere. Sure you can still have your chauffer take you out in the Rolls, but the rabble are crowding the streets forcing you to sit in traffic, and they don’t even have the common decency to get out of your way. Sure you can still go to the French Riviera, but the rabble now crowd the beaches and even the marinas. And, oh, those nouveau-rich! Rabble! All your favorite haunts are now accessible to the common rabble and it’s just not right! You’re better than they are, you know it and they should too, but what can you do?

So you consider the problem. How did it happen that the common rabble can afford to visit what used to be the private haunts of you and your kind? How did it happen that so many commoners have now become nouveau-rich? How did it happen that so many common rabble can drive cars that congest your streets?

You realize that the problem began with the beginnings of the industrial revolution. With the advent of machines that do the work of hundreds of men and cheap energy to power them, wealth was created at an unprecedented rate. As industries progressed ever more wealth was created and shared by the masses, the middle-class thrived and expanded to the point where today they’re able to go to the places and do the things that only the elite upper class could do just 60 years ago.

This situation is unacceptable, but how do you fix it? The solution is to lower the standard of living of the middle class back to what it should be, but how to do that? You could get the politicians you own to pass laws mandating the commoners lower their standard of living, but there are thousands of them for every one of you and they’d revolt. So what do you do?

You need to find a way to make them voluntarily lower their standard of living. So you go back to the root cause of the increase in wealth…cheap abundant energy in the form of fossil fuels. If you can eliminate the availability of cheap energy, the problem will fix itself. But how do you get the masses to accept that? What is common to all fossil fuel? Well, when it’s burned to produce energy, carbon dioxide is produced. There is nothing that can be done to prevent that, it’s just physics. That’s it! You can pay scientists to tell the rabble that burning fossil fuel is releasing ancient CO2 into the atmosphere and destroying the planet! You can pay your politicians to pass laws to limit the use and raise the cost of fossil fuel under the guise of saving the planet! The stupid rabble will, for the most part, believe it and voluntarily give up their luxuries for the good of the planet.

This will take a massive PR campaign, but you already have the politicians, the media and the universities (with the scientists) on your payroll, this is going to work! There will be some smart enough to see the scam, but the massive PR campaign can silence them. There can even be suggestions made that those who don’t go along should be accused of crimes against humanity. It will take a few decades but by the time your grandchildren reach your age things will be back to the way they should be. The rabble will be back in their place and the elites will be able to enjoy themselves again without having to endure the indignities of mingling with the common rabble.

Problem solved!

Sorry, Tom, I was being facetious. Also, believe it or not, there are people who actually don't know that natural gas is a fossil fuel.

Anyway, the push to replace coal-fired power plants with natural gas ones is ideological and political, not economic. It's all part of President Obama's war on coal, in which his EPA threatened huge fines daily for operating coal-fired plants.

The chart below shows the cost of natural gas vs equivanent-energy cost of coal. Turns out Appalachian coal is about the same price as natural gas. Powder River Basin coal is about 1/3 the cost of both. So, even with the current abundance (and low prices) for natural gas, it is still significantly more expensive to produce electricity with it than coal from the Powder River Basin.

But aside from the cost, another aspect of using natural gas for electricity production that I find disturbing and short-sighted, is that both coal and natural gas are finite resources. Yes, we currently have lots of both, but eventually they'll run out. Natural gas is a wonderful fuel for heating homes, cooking and can even be used for transportation. Coal is pretty much worthless for all of that, but wonderful for producing electricity. To me it makes a lot more sense to use the abundant coal resources for what they're best at and thereby save the natural gas for important uses that coal can't easily fill.