| By Clem Guttata
Over at Coal Tattoo, Ken Ward, Jr. covers a new important U.S. Geological Survey study on Peak Coal in: Peak coal: Coming to Appalachia sooner than you think? (Head over there for some great charts.)
If you look at the energy returned from energy invested to extract the coal, I wonder if we haven't already hit peak coal-sourced energy in West Virginia. The coal we mine today doesn't provide as much energy per ton as the coal we used to mine and the coal we mine in 5-10 years is going to be more difficult to mine than what we extract today.
This study shows why any technology for burning coal more cleanly 10-20 years from now is too little too late for West Virginia (it may well be too little too late for our planet, too, but that's a completely different topic).
Someone needs to alert Sen. Rockefeller's office about this study, so he won't say again that "We have a 400 year supply in this country of coal" (senate hearing on 1/25/2009).
This study demonstrates that any public policy planning for West Virginia still based on the assumption that generations of coal wealth remains is seriously flawed. It'll be a major step forward for West Virginia once our Sens., Reps., Gov., legislature and other civic leaders finally start acting like major coal production in W.Va. is down to 100-200 months--not 100-200 years. |