New Use for Coal?

IMHO - we should leave the carbon in the ground!

The rare earth elements an be extracted from exisiting stores of fly ash, as well as from coal. Any residue left after the REE extraction process, including leftover carbon, can be returned to the ground.

Seems like a good idea to me. If nothing else, it give the US an alternative to buying strategic materials from China and could help keep down the costs of high tech components.

There is plenty of coal elsewhere, too. Other countries could give the uSA and China a run for their money.

The UK would struggle to compete due the short sighted pit closures.

Big Coal wouldn't stand for extracting the REE from fly ash, they'll insist⁽¹⁾ that it's not cost effective to extract from ash, it HAS to be from freshly-mined coal. And after the REE extraction? Why the 'waste coal' gets 'disposed of' by burning, of course, it'd be too expensive shipping it to a decommissioned mine to store down there.

Notes:

1. By way of buying lobbyists, congressmen and low-ethics 'scientists' who will promote whatever cause pays them the most, regardless of the facts.