Fossil fuels still constitute an important source of energy in the world, but they need to comply with more strict environmental requirements. The coal industry, the basic primary energy supplier to the Polish economy, not only faces new environmental regulations but also restructuring and changes in the industry's organisational structure. The issues of primary importance are the medium and long-term prospects of achieving a suitable quantity and quality of coal supplied, as well as suitable costs. The structure of power generation needs to adjust to emissions limits with given fuel supplies. The paper discusses the construction of a coal supply balancing system which has been developed and applied as a decision support for rational planning of the development of the Polish coal industry. It consists of two linked groups of models: coal supply and coal balancing. Such a structure allows it to respond to the problems emerging. for the most part from new environmental regulations, and to select policies that will lead to sustainability in the industry. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.