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First Things First: Let’s Mine the Coal
Editiorial, West Virginia State Journal
… A number of West Virginia political leaders are promoting the conversion of coal into liquid fuels. They see coal-to-liquid technology — a decades-old process – as a common-sense strategy for a nation that needs a dependable supply of transportation fuel.
Those same promoters see coal-to-liquid projects generating more mining and manufacturing jobs and reducing the nation’s dependence on foreign energy sources. They have suggested the U.S. military commit to buying coal-to-liquid fuel to ensure a market and price stability for prospective manufacturers.
One moment, please: Aren’t the coal-to-liquid advocates missing the obvious?
Coal is under assault on almost every conceivable front. While West Virginia’s political figures promote coal as an energy savior in West Virginia, much of the nation demonizes it as an environmentally unacceptable energy source.
…We can talk about windmills, solar panels and biomass, and they undoubtedly are in our future. But those energy sources cannot meet the nation’s growing energy demands now or in the foreseeable future. Nuclear energy may take on an expanded role, but not everyone will welcome it.
Our leaders must step up and tell the nation the truth: We need coal. It must remain a major source for electricity, and it certainly could and should be a source for motor fuels.
(30 August 2007)
West Virgina is a coal-mining state. According to the state’s Office of Miners’ Health Safety & Training: “Taxes paid by the coal industry and by utility companies that make electricity using West Virginia coal account for two-thirds, or over 60% of business taxes paid in our state.”
Majority in NSW say no to more coal
Wendy Frew, Sydney Morning Herald
MOST people in NSW [New South Wales] favour renewable energy over coal to satisfy the state’s electricity needs, a Newspoll survey to be published today has found.
The poll, commissioned by Greenpeace, also found more than 50 per cent of people do not believe that the Premier, Morris Iemma, is doing enough to tackle climate change.
The poll of 334 people conducted by phone from August 24 to 26 showed 82 per cent of adult respondents did not want a new coal-fired power station built in NSW, with disapproval spread fairly evenly across age, gender and income groups.
The poll coincides with the deadline for submissions to the Government’s Owen inquiry into electricity supply. Of the 72 public submissions, 29 rejected a new coal-fired power station, while 34 supported a greater role for renewable energy in the mix, in particular solar, wind, biomass and hot rocks, an analysis by the Nature Conservation Council of NSW has found.
A new coal-fired power station would emit millions of tonnes a year of additional greenhouse pollution and make it impossible for the Government to meet its own long-term greenhouse gas target of stabilisation of emissions at 2000 levels by 2025, said a Greenpeace energy campaigner, Ben Pearson.
(31 August 2007)
Coal: Research and Development to Support National Energy Policy (PDF)
The National Academies (U.S.)
Coal provides nearly a quarter of U.S. energy supplies and is used to generate more than half of the nation’s electricity. Although future demand for coal may be impacted by regulation of carbon dioxide emissions, coal use is expected to remain constant or even increase over the next several decades. An increased investment in research and development is needed to ensure that the nation’s coal resource is used efficiently, safely, and in an environmentally responsible manner.
…Accurate and comprehensive estimates of national coal reserves are essential for a coherent national energy strategy, particularly for community, workforce, and infrastructure planning.
Although the United States is endowed with a vast amount of coal, coal reserves (i.e., the coal that can be economically mined using current mining practices) are a small proportion of total coal resources.
Present estimates of coal reserves- which take into account location, quality, recoverability, and transportation issues-are based upon methods that have not been updated since their inception in 1974, and much of the input data were compiled in the early 1970s. Recent programs to assess coal recoverability in limited areas using updated methods indicate that only a small fraction of previously estimated reserves are actually recoverable. Such findings emphasize the need for a reinvigorated coal reserve assessment program using modern methods and technologies.
A coordinated federal-state-industry initiative to determine the magnitude and characteristics of the nation’s recoverable coal reserves, using modern mapping, coal characterization, and database technologies, should be instituted with the goal of providing policy makers with a comprehensive accounting of national coal reserves within 10 years. The report estimates that such an initiative, which should be lead by the U.S. Geological Survey and involve participation by the Energy Information Administration at DOE, states, and industry, will require additional funding of approximately $10 million per year.
(June 2007)
Emphasis added. The realization that coal reserve data is inaccurate confirms what Richard Heinberg and others have been saying.
This study was requested by Senators Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Robert Byrd (D-WVA)
