I guess this makes me a party pooper but the more the coal industry is hindered the better I say. Far from expanding I believe half the mines should be shut down. Bring on carbon trading and if coal buyers overseas can escape it then put extra tariffs on their products. While coal exports are said to be worth $25 billion they generate half a billion tonnes of greenhouse gas; according to Stern each tonne of CO2 does $US85 of damage so coal exports look like an 'own goal' to me.

On top of that the German Energy Watch group estimates global coal production will peak by 2020. In Australia I think that means going for deeper or thinner seams. Coal production should be drastically slowed now to give nature time to absorb the damage and also to conserve the resource for decades longer. Yes we know clean coal is coming but like the Easter Bunny nobody has actually seen it. Even if it did work it would require extra tonnages to offset the energy penalty. In short: slow it down don't speed it up.