**Coal Is Not Dead: The Reliability of Modern Coal Powering AI and Data Centers.** Salena Zito discusses her visit to a Pennsylvania coal mine, where coal, once deemed obsolete, is now crucial due to the energy demands of artificial intelligence and data
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 17 October 2025
⏱️ 4 minutes
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| 0:00.0 | Building a coffee business? |
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| 0:17.9 | Visit sumup.co.uk to learn more. |
| 0:22.6 | This is John Batchel, |
| 0:28.7 | conversation with my colleague Selina Zito of the Washington Post about her descent into a coal mine in Pennsylvania, 1,200 feet down with Senator McCormick, looking at the modern face of coal, |
| 0:35.8 | artificial intelligence, large machines, well-paid staff, |
| 0:40.7 | and coal that gets to making electricity power within seven to ten hours of leaving the coal face. |
| 0:47.6 | But there's more to it than that. |
| 0:49.6 | Selina describes the need, the absolute need for coal. |
| 0:53.6 | Right now and going forward, the short answer is data centers, AI, needs coal. |
| 1:01.0 | Much more of this tonight. |
| 1:02.3 | Here's Selena. |
| 1:03.4 | Well, you know, for years, the message coming out of D.C. is coal was dead and or we're going to kill your jobs. That's |
| 1:12.3 | made it difficult to recruit young people. However, that has changed under this new administration |
| 1:20.9 | who rolled out coal 2.0 in March, I believe. And this has a lot to do with AI and the data power centers that are being built to, to, to, to, to, |
| 1:38.4 | facilitate AI, artificial intelligence. |
| 1:41.6 | They require an abundance of energy. |
| 1:46.2 | And it's energy that has to be, have a strong base load and be reliable. |
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