U.S. Department of Energy Announces Up to $14M for Advanced Coal Processing Technologies

The DoE will provide companies funding for R&D aimed at products such as building materials that are based on coal, in an effort to boost demand and keep the industry from disappearing.

Obviously, as long as the coal isn’t combusted, the ecological damage associated with all this is confined to the mining process itself.  Having said that, it will be a happy day on Planet Earth when coal in all its uses is relegated to the past.