Why is coal not mined in Maine?

The same mountain chain extends from Georgia to Nova Scotia. They mine, or used to, anthracite coal in Nova Scotia. Why is coal not being actively mined in Maine. Surely there are formations that should be accessible to modern mining techniques.

"There is no history of coal mining in Maine, as the state has little or no coal reserves.[8][9] The coal power industry is also very weak in Maine - the state's sole coal-fired power plant was built in 1990. Currently, National RE/sources is trying to build the Twin River Energy Center, a 700-MW IGCC plant in Wiscasset, ME; the company continues to pursue the project, despite the fact that Wiscasset voters defeated the plant proposal in a referendum in Nov. 2007."


http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?ti ... e_and_coal

Google shows this fellow tho...
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... ckland,+ME

as far as i know nova scotia is all bituminous coal. there is anthracite (not necessarily mineable deposits) in southern ny, conn, and rhode island. It's not really the same mountain chain; once you get northeast of the catskills the geology changes quite a bit, from I-90 north your dealing with different geological history. the large deposits of coal that used to be located south of you connecting the middle atlantic with nova scotia are now long eroded away and in some cases under the ocean floor.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-fr ... 946897D6CF Article fron 1909

http://www.nma.org/pdf/c_bearing_areas.pdf Looks like Maine got left out.

They did some mining in MA...
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9F00E1D71E3BE733A25757C0A9669D946397D6CF
and
http://books.google.com/books?id=th28AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA103&lpg=PA103&dq=anthracite+coal+massachusetts&source=bl&ots=nEC3wwc9qh&sig=BKI_DCo5CHrDFx5Vlj9LdJmnLwo&hl=en&ei=5Ld0S_j_BMH_8Abn1p30CQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCEQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=anthracite%20coal%20massachusetts&f=false

So there may be coal around but the common wisdom is there is none to be had. Hum... maybe an opportunity there somewhere?

CapeCoaler wrote:They did some mining in MA...

I'd imagine those veins are covered now with 7,000 square foot hip roof colonials ....

They'd be more than happy to let you mine there!

Berlin wrote:as far as i know nova scotia is all bituminous coal.

This is correct. Only bituminous is mined in Nova Scotia.

Berlin wrote:and in some cases under the ocean floor.

We have mostly strip mines now, but in the past over 80% of Nova Scotia coal came from beneath the ocean floor from Submarine mines. I have coal in my shop that came from ~3.5 miles offshore and ~3000 feet beneath the ocean floor. The coal I use at home is strip mined. Both are good coal.

http://www.mininghistory.ns.ca/lfrost/lfcond.htm

Terry

Another thing to distinguish NE from further South is that much of New England shares a geologic history with Scotland, they were part of the same land mass a few years ago as tectonic plates moved, merged and divided. Read it in a book about NE geologic history, don't remember the name.