[Hoot Gibson]

The scrubbers I have been helping to install in the last 10 years clean to low sulfer coal, so that low sulfer coal can be burnt in coal fired powerplants. You think a power company will buy 58 dollar/ton coal when they can buy 6.50 dollar/ton coal?

http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-an...31420.html

Yes, I do. They have been doing it for years. Scrubbing coal is expensive and the transportation costs from the Powder River Basin to the eastern U.S. is substantially higher than coal from central Appalachia. When you compare western coal to the coal from eastern Kentucky and West Virginia you are comparing a Mercedes to a Government Motors car. Typically, western coal contains 8,500 BTU/lb. compared to central Appalachian coal, which often contains 12,500 BTU/lb or more. If installing and operating scrubbers was cheap, then the coal industry in the Illinois Basin would be booming.