I heat my garage with coal, helps that I can walk about 1000ft with a bucket and get a load of it for free I guess.
It is messy and makes lots more smoke than wood but a lot more people around here use it to heat their houses now that natural gas has just about doubled in the last few years.
I figure the pollution thing around here makes no difference. The tiny amount put off by people living here is nothing compared to the huge black clouds that sometimes block out the sun that the strip mines dump out. Also burning those huge rock truck tires/other waste at night. You can usually smell that for miles.
Coal sucks
most people have no idea how much pollution/water contamination happens when they strip mine it.