West Virginia Mine Explosion

TAKING THE PULSE: With natural gas prices hovering near 10-year lows, investors have fled coal companies, pushing the Dow Jones U.S. Coal Index down by more than half in the past year.To Moody's Investors Service, the gas glut heralds a sea change. "Coal will find it increasingly difficult to compete with gas as a power source over the next decade," Moody's analyst Jim Hempstead said this month, as the rating firm projected a wide shift to exports. Demand from Asia is still high.Others think the outlook isn't quite so dire. Analysts at FBR Capital Markets believe that most power plants capable of switching to natural gas have already done so. Some coal producers are cutting their output, which could raise prices down the line.This month marks the two-year anniversary of an accident that killed 29 miners at the Massey Energy Co.'s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia--the worst U.S. mining disaster in four decades.COMPANIES TO WATCH: Peabody Energy Corp. (BTU) - reports April 19Wall S...

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