Greenwire: Is the world about to begin running out of coal? Two researchers say so. In a peer-reviewed article published in the journal Energy, they write that the world will hit “peak coal” production next year or shortly thereafter, and then mining would begin a long, steep decline. Bottom line, say the paper’s co-authors, Tadeusz Patzek, a University of Texas engineering professor, and Greg Croft, a St. Mary’s College of California earth science professor, is that the 7 billion tons of …