Boulder, Colo., USA, 26 June, 2006 (News Release)

Meeting future U.S. coal demand will require substantial new investment in the coal supply chain, and a fresh assessment of U.S. coal reserves according to a new study, Can Coal Deliver? America's Coal Potential and Limits, announced today by Global Energy Decisions (Global Energy) with contributions by Global Energy Consultants, LLC.

"Meeting America's fuel diversity objectives will significantly increase coal demand by up to 4% a year for the next 20 years. What is not well understood today is that meeting that growing coal demand will require substantial investment in coal infrastructure and technology to overcome the constraints on coal supply, productive capacity, and deliverability," said Larry Metzroth, Vice President Coal Advisory Services at Global Energy Decisions. "At the same time as the demand for coal is growing to meet America's fuel diversity and supply needs, we are also focused on expanding our use of clean coal technology to address emissions and global warming concerns. This will trigger a new era of coal supply chain investment."

"This study is the most substantial piece of research on U.S. coal supply and production constraints available today," said Ramesh Malhotra, president of Global Energy Consultants, and former president of NERCO Coal. "It re-examines conventional wisdom and sheds new light on coal."

Can Coal Deliver? America's Coal Potential and Limits provides in-depth research, and candid analysis of the key supply and production issues confronting America's coal industry:

• US coal production may have to increase by as much as 4% per year for the next 20 years to achieve fuel diversity objectives and to meet expected demand from power generators.
• The key question is can the coal industry deliver given lack of investment in infrastructure, lack of trained personnel, and the regional differences in gaining cost effective access to coal?
• Where is the Coal we need? The study recommends that the US update its analysis of coal reserves to estimate the demonstrated reserve base.
• US Coal Imports are growing? How can that be? The diminishing productive capacity of certain coal basins is leading to growing imports of coal to the Saudi Arabia of Coal---the US.
• Investment in Coal Infrastructure. We need to spend more, faster, to regain America's full productive capacity of its coal reserves.
• What about global warming? Even as the US becomes more concerned about the implications of global warming the demand for coal is rising adding pressure for investment in IGCC and other new technology to enable clean coal utilization. This has a dramatic effect on coal blends and deliverability.

The study release date is July 31, 2006, and is delivered electronically including both the report and electronic data. A study prospectus is available via download at: http://www.globalenergy.com/coalstudy 

About Global Energy Decisions: Global Energy provides energy organisations with solutions based on a common framework of software applications, energy markets data, and advisory services to enable energy professionals to forecast electricity pricing and demand, conduct resource planning, perform strategic studies and competitor analysis, manage risk, trade energy and schedule delivery, and optimize generation performance. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Global Energy has over 400 customer relationships worldwide with the industry's leading market participants. More information about Global Energy is available at www.globalenergy.com.

About Global Energy Consultants: Global Energy Consultants (not affiliated with Global Energy Decisions) is a group of energy experts with experience in fuel planning, production, utilization, transportation, handing, in-transit logistics, marketing and sales. Global Energy Consultants are committed to providing services that incorporate knowledge, practical experience and interpretation of data to respond to individual customer needs within the energy industry. More information is available at www.globalmc2.com.

For further information, contact:

Andy Bane
Global Energy Decisions, Inc.
+1 720 221 5708
abane@globalenergy.com