Broadly, there are two sectors involved in this study – coal and electricity. The demand of coal-bearing states is that part of the revenues accruing from electricity consumed in other states should rightfully be theirs, since it is generated using their coal and imposes costs on their natural and human resources. Posed this way, the central issue is not about sharing of revenues from electricity consumed, but about being compensated for the impacts caused by coal production. The essential policy question here is this – how are coal-bearing states and their people compensated for the negative externalities they bear from coal mining and for those that arise from the production of electricity? This study examined the environmental and social externalities and costs of coal mining and coal based thermal power generation using a life cycle approach in four major coal producing states – Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.