CNG is a sensible medium term option for Australia because its clean(ish) and we have a lot of gas.

why won't CTL projects spring up everywhere that has coal?

Oh I don't know, maybe its this climate change thing people keep talking about?

The first fully automated (read remotely operated or robotic) longwall was run in the United Kingdom in the 1960's. It was called ROLF . The deepest mine was apparently at 5,000 ft in the UK, though until I looked I hadn't thought they mined deeper than 3,000 ft, in Kent. The main reason that mines don't go deeper, at present, is that there is enough coal, closer to the surface, that is a whole lot cheaper to mine. It is only when the coal is exceptionally good, or the country is desperate for the resource (e.g. Ukraine which now has mines that I seem to remember go down to 4,500 ft) that mines start to go very deep.

Slowly remote and robotic control are coming to mining, but the changing geological conditions make it more difficult to program machines to work effectively, and in the varying geometry (seams can go from 5 ft thick to 18 inches in less that 150 ft) human miners are just that much more flexible.

I think a review of the ethanol financial debacle is in order. Great interest and government mandates and subsidies still can't make these companies profitable. Look at PEIX. The own the west coast for ethanol and can't earn a dime. Most plants on the board for 09 and out have been cancelled due huge losses in the industry.

American business moves fast when is senses a profit is correct.

Maybe they don't sense a profit.

To respond to your last question first: Yes, the coal industry (at least in the US) HAS gotten away from the old deep coal mining using human labor scheme, and they've done it rather destructively by using a technique known as 'mountain top removal'. It's fairly self-explanatory: they dynamite the tops off of mountains in Appalachia, pull the coal seams out using heavy equipment, and dump the remains in nearby rivers and streams. Real nice solution.

That aside, I think the coal industry is already poised to make a resurgance. Every other side ad in CCN's website lately tends to be from this Orwellian thinktank called "America's Power" (http://www.americaspower.org/). Their point for existence seems to be to try to remake the coal industry's image with a load of "greenwash". Look for a lot more of this as the coal monster awakens.