Plants that were buried before they could return their life giving carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. In the short run we can't stop burning coal because of the capacity crisis. We have no capacity to spare and most of what we have is coal-fired. So we have to burn coal to have electricity. In the long run, ten years or so, we could switch to other forms of energy.
People get a lot of benefits from cheap electricity.
The cheaper it is the more benefits they can afford. Look at the Cost Versus Use Charts . Where electricity is expensive people use a lot less of it. This means they can't afford a lot of the things cheap electricity provides. Now look at the Coal Scenarios Chart below.