Source: trib.com                Date: 20 October, 2010

Peabody Energy is eyeing its newly acquired coal field in Mongolia near the northern Chinese border to apply the Powder River Basin model, regarded as the most prolific coal mining model in the industry to date.  Some 14 active coal mines extract more than 400 million tons annually, and two railroads deliver that coal to some 37 states in the USA.

Mr. Fred Palmer, senior vice president of government relations for Peabody, said the model for mining coal should be applied in nations around the world in order to lift growing populations out of poverty and to further advance economies of developed nations. For him, using more coal is a matter of human rights in that cheap coal offers a higher standard of living for all. Cheap coal power "allows people to live better and live longer," said Mr. Palmer.

Mr. Palmer said if the richest nations in the world force developing countries to put the current CO2 emissions-heavy coal power plant model on the shelf, it would be inhumane to those populations desperate to lift themselves out of poverty. "I say it's energy apartheid to sit here in the U.S. and say the rest of the world cannot enjoy the same lifestyle," said Mr. Palmer.