Two Ohio coal-fired plants to close, deepening industry decline

[erpowers]

21. Do Regulations Make Coal More Expensive?

I am not a fan of coal; I am just asking because one of the hosts on NPR said regulations did play a role in making natural gas cheaper. Now, I realize there was a pro-coal guy who was going to be interviewed on NPR and he said that to make coal cheap enough to compete with natural gas the EPA and the Energy Department had to be shut down and just about all regulations, if not all regulations, had to be removed. I do not want to get rid of all or most environmental regulations, but have regulations made coal more expensive than natural gas, or is natural gas just naturally cheaper than coal? In addition, if you can explain it, what, aside from regulations, makes natural gas so cheap? Is it easier to get out of the ground? Is it cheap because there is a large amount of natural gas in the ground?