The Washington Post weighs in this morning with a long front-page story about the world's "burning appetite" for coal. The price of coal has risen faster than the price of oil. Ship are lined up in Australian ports waiting for deliveries. "Freight cars in Appalachia are brimming with coal for export, and old coal mines in Japan have been reopened or expanded," according to reporters Steven Mufson and Blaine Harden.The result will be major investments in coal producing and transporting facilities. Consol is trying to decide whether to expand its Appalachian operations and add capacity at the harbor in Baltimore.The story tells how coal mining is expanding around the world. And even though coal use is finding opponents in the US, that's not true elsewhere. Coal is king these days not in West Virginia, but in India.