When you were a child, did your mother never teach you to clean up after yourself?
Well, companies have to do the same thing. And like you as a child, if they won’t do it on their own then parents (government) is forced to intervene and require (regulate) them to do so.
Burning coal dumps megatons of sulfates and and ash and other pollutants into the atmosphere annually. Pollutants that are directly related to acidification of rainfall and as such the acidification of our streams, rivers, lakes, and groundwater. Polutants that directly contribute to asthma and lung cancer and other health related issues; and, of course, to our carbon footprint.
So yes, power plants were required to install scrubbers and generally clean up their act. And yes, that contributes to the cost of doing business.
But that is, like it or not, part of those costs, and we don’t allow coal miners or coal power producers to indiscriminately pollute any more than we allow chemical companies to freely dump waste into the river upstream from your home.
So yes, when you factor in those costs, it increases the cost of using coal. But other means of energy production (like drilling for gas) have their own regulations and corresponding expenses and coal would still be more expensive if all of those “overreaching” coal and gas regulations disappeared.
Thus the market decided to pursue gas-fired plants, in addition to renewables liked solar and wind.
And yes, coal was once “cheap”… but only in relation to other means of producing power. Gas was once too expensive to use… until it wasn’t. Efficiencies in gas production and delivery have driven down those costs while, at the same time, the costs of mining and shipping have risen.
Solar and wind was once wildly expensive. Now costs are plumenting. (To the point where gas producers are starting to worry.)
Note that this excludes the costs of the coal and gas plants themselves, as well as the costs of any corresponding regulation pertaining to power production. We’re talking the price of fuel, alone.
The problem is that almost all of the easy-to-reach coal has been mined, especially in Appalachia, which means coal companies have to dig deeper, go after thinner seams and smaller deposits, or resort to blowing the tops off mountains and digging through the debris. That costs more, in both energy and money. And second, transportation costs, mainly the cost of the diesel fuel that runs the trains that carry the coal, are rising.
And it’s not just “me” saying so: “Mining costs have risen significantly in recent years — on average by around 9 percent per year since 2005,” the International Energy Agency said in its most recent coal market report.
“Coal mining companies are going to need to invest more to produce steady quantities of coal. In its “Coal Information” report for 2012, the IEA said that between 2008 and 2010 it required $7.80 a ton for new production capacity and that those costs would rise to $9.30 a ton going forward.”

Bottom line: Coal is dirty, dangerous, a nightmare to safely produce, and expensive as heck to mine and ship (daily) from where it’s produced to where it’s consumed. (After which you have to deal with the byproducts.)
Burn the entire EPA rulebook if you want. That still won’t make it competitive.
I’m glad you promote clean, safe, cheap energy. So do I.
Unfortunately, coal doesn’t meet that criteria.
