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by icehawk219 3708 days ago
For things like coal and oil the cost is in acquisition, transportation, and storage of the fuel and the infrastructure that goes with that.

You can't just go out and find coal lying around. You need to hallow out or level an entire mountain to get it. That requires a lot of people and equipment. And you need to transport large quantities of it around to where it's needed which requires special infrastructure dedicated to that task. The same goes for oil/natural gas.