Despite a list of problems, ranging from roof falls to equipment breakdowns to uncooperative geology, Cecil Township-based Consol Energy Inc. is riding a wave of high coal prices and a global energy market that, at least for a short time, is hungry for coal.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent halt in Russian gas flows to Europe has nudged coal markets in two ways.
One, it pushed up the price of natural gas across much of the world, which made coal a more cost-effective fuel in some places. Two, some utilities in Europe expect to burn more coal in the short term to displace Russian coal and gas, and that has also driven demand and higher prices for coal.
