Gasoline isn't the only energy cost that's rising

I was checking out West Virginia Blue this morning, and I saw an item about a surge in prices on the spot coal market. So I checked out this Energy Information Administration site to get more information, and what I found surprised me. Just as the price of crude oil has gone up, so has the price of steam coal and met coal.

Steam coal is what's burned in power plants. Met, or metallurgical, coal is used in making metals such as steel. As you can see from these charts on the EIA site, the price of coal has gone up a bit recently, similar to what the price of oil has done.

Central Appalachian coal was in the low $40s a year ago and is the mid $80s now. Two years ago, it was in the mid $60s. Northern Appalachian coal was about $45 a ton a year ago and is $110 now.

Met coal at coke plants was about $98 in December, up from the low $90s a year ago, if I read the chart right. Part of that may be a function of demand, as there have been some new coke plants built in recent years and more are planned or under construction.

This is the what, not the why. This afternoon, I'm taking a week off, so I don't have a whole lot of time to dig into the why. Maybe I will week after next. But it's important to see the price of gasoline in the overall context of rising energy prices. I don't expect we'll see coal company executives hauled before Congress for a photo-op grilling, but think about it. If the price of steam coal goes up, sooner or later the price of electricity will have to go up, too, as slightly less than half of all electricity generated in the USA comes from coal.

I will, however, try to post more thoughts on energy prices before I get out of here today.