Crucial Coal: Powering Mongolia's Future

By Leo Liu: Leo Liu is a private investor and currently holds the position of Investor Relations Officer with Prophecy Coal Corp. High economic growth driven by mining activity

Coal will nearly overtake oil as the dominant energy source by 2017, and only a drop in world gas prices could curb the use of the dirtier fossil fuel in the absence of high carbon prices, the International Energy Agency said. The IEA, the energy agency for developed countries, said earlier this year that without a major shift away from coal, average global temperatures could rise by 6 degrees Celsius by 2050, leading to devastating climate change.

By Jon Springer:The real quantity of Mongolia's natural resources cannot yet be know. Weighed down by communism from 1921 to 1991, followed by poor economic times thereafter, and still troubled by poor but now developing infrastructure, it is one of the last great frontiers of natural resources.

Mongolia is an East Asian country about the size of Alaska, with vast potential for wind energy due to the large unpopulated plains that make up most of the land, and the wind corridor of the Gobi desert.

MATT YGLESIAS muses about alternative development paths for the American economy:

Demand for access to basic needs, an emerging middle class and a never-ending use of global resources—these are the primary drivers of major infrastructure projects over the next several years, says GE. In its Investor Meeting last week, the firm highlighted a few macro slides on world growth. One slide pins major global infrastructure plans totaling $4 trillion over the next 2 to 20 years.

Trefis submits: Massey Energy (NYSE:MEE) reported first quarter FY11 earnings earlier this week. Net revenues for the quarter increased 38% compared with the same period last year. The produced coal segment, which has the largest share of net revenues and accounts for 82% of our stock value, increased revenues by 45%.