I would really like to see figures that report the number of litres of petroleum products like diesel it takes to get a tonne of coal out or the ground to a power station here on Australia and overseas.
I suspect it consumes an alarming amount of fuel amd in effect severely erodes the net calorific gain in mining coal ... and then energy losses in surface combustion further erodes that gain.
As you are probably aware, the nascent clean coal technology of underground coal gasification is a significantly more efficient, greenhouse gas friendly, particulates emission friendly utilisation of insitu coal.
