Yes, but there are other ways to raise the price of coal which don't involve bribing coal companies to stop destroying the world. They're destroying the world,

Yes, but there are other ways to raise the price of coal which don't involve bribing coal companies to stop destroying the world. They're destroying the world, how about they pay for it? You could put a massive property tax on coal mining rights, a massive tax on profits from coal, and/or a massive sales tax on coal. Any of those would achieve the same result, but instead of rewarding sociopathic corporations that are literally destroying the world, they'd put that money in public coffers which could be used, for example, to fund renewable energy. I really don't think we need to bribe coal companies to stop killing us. EDIT: And don't even think of playing the "but if we tax them they'll pass that cost on to consumers" card. Driving up the cost of coal by buying mines will also result in them passing that cost on to consumers. All costs are always passed on to consumers: billionaires are billionaires because they're adept at getting other people to pay for things. At least if the money is going into taxes, it can be passed back to the consumers it was taken from in the form of public programs.