Lifting the Coal Resource Curse

you're mostly right, but (2.00 / 2)

Much of what you lay out here is correct without debate, but you are ignoring the central issue: energy demand is requiring the US and world to use more and more coal. Demand for all energy is down due to the recession, but everyone agrees that we will soon return to rising demand as the economy continues to recover.

Renewable and alternative energy is great, it's getting better all the time, and we should continue to do whatever we can to encourage it's growth; HOWEVER, even the rosiest scenarios will require the US and the world to at least maintain our current levels of coal usage and possibly even increase it.

Like it or not, we have to come to grips with the reality that we are going to have to continue to use massive amounts of coal, even as we push hard to grow renewables and alternatives.

If we can accept that reality we can have a more productive debate and solution to our energy/climate needs. Merely trashing coal and calling for its demise is not realistic.

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by: jcsaunders @ Thu Sep 24, 2009 at 13:18:39 PM UTC

long term demand and Appalachian supply (4.00 / 2)

There's three factors to consider here, each which should be considered seperately:

(1) I don't agree that long term we are going to have rising demand for all energy or for coal specifically. But, let's put that point aside as it is largely irrelevant for West Virginia's resource curse. That's a red herring.

(2) Even if the rest of the world continues to use a lot of coal, that doesn't say whether or not it is a good idea for the West Virginia economy to continue investing more and more of its time, talent, and treasure into exploiting its natural resources. The debate we ought to be having is if coal is a good basis for a sound economy.

(3) The critical point I'm trying to make is: we are running out of economically viable coal deposits in West Virginia. I think it is misguided to invest all of the state's political capital to keep the industry on life support to eek out a few more years. Now is the time to create economic opportunities so the next shift of laid off coal miners will have a softer landing. Now is the time to create economic opportunities so the coal miner's daughter doesn't have to leave the state to get a job and raise a family.

After a Century of coal mining (with decidedly mixed results for West Virginians) we are now down to 100's of months of supply. The low sulfur coal favored by electric utilities (the most economically valuable stuff because it is the cleanest burning) is just about exhausted. The cost of mining coal in Appalachia is way more than mining it in the West. (This is because of geology and industry maturity, not regulations.)

I am not trying to trash coal or call for its demise--I'm providing facts as I find them. (Granted, the reality of the West Virginia coal industry does share some resemblance to a trashy industry staring down its own demise.)

What I am trying to do is get people to open up their eyes and start having a reality-based conversation about the West Virginia economy.

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by: Clem Guttata @ Thu Sep 24, 2009 at 13:37:54 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

ok, but (0.00 / 1)

On #2 & #3, you can make a valid argument that our state should work more towards the future energy economy. I am all for that and I applaud some of the steps we have taken on a state and nat'l level. For example, the 3-month energy star tax holiday that Manchin and McGraw rolled out and Obama's efforts to put some big money into clean energy via the stimulus efforts.

On #1, you are completely wrong. Here's some evidence:
EU Wind Energy people predict 52% increase in demand over next 30yrs http://www.no-fuel.org/index.p...

Another wind group predicts 1.6% worldwide demand growth per year and that 83% of that increase will have to be met by fossil fuels http://www.windaction.org/news...

Energy gap & climate challenge
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes....

The demand for energy is exponentially growing worldwide. Renewables and alternatives are growing fast too, but at best will not be able to BOTH meet the increase in demand and start reducing our dependence on coal.

The US and world are going to continue to use an increasing amount of coal over the next 2-3 decades - even as renewables grow. If you are concerned about climate change we better realize that we need to invest a lot into cleaning up coal - we don't have a choice. If we halt coal mining in WV thru environmental regulations and protests all we will do is further increase the demand for Western US coal, Chinese coal, etc.

Let's spend a trillion dollars on clean energy in America, and that will help, but coal will still make up an huge part of our energy pie in the US and not to mention the rest of the world. We better accept coal as part of our energy portfolio and do what we can to mitigate its impact.

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by: jcsaunders @ Thu Sep 24, 2009 at 15:21:00 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

yes, and.... (4.00 / 1)

Thank you for engaging in this conversation.

I'm sure we could have an interesting discussion about peak coal, peak oil, conservation, and the nature of a post-carbon economy. Maybe one of us should do a diary just on that. But as I said, I think that's really a red herring for this discussion. (If you're interested in those topics, I highly recommend the website The Oil Drum.)

Let's say that even if W.Va. coal supply has peaked that world wide coal supply has not yet peaked. For the basis of this discussion, that's enough common ground to move forward.

You said:

On #2 & #3, you can make a valid argument that our state should work more towards the future energy economy. I am all for that and I applaud some of the steps we have taken on a state and nat'l level. For example, the 3-month energy star tax holiday that Manchin and McGraw rolled out and Obama's efforts to put some big money into clean energy via the stimulus efforts.

Good, some more common ground. Here's the problem. The 3-month energy star tax holiday is laudable, but how does that diversify the W.Va. economy? And, Obama's stimulus efforts with money for clean energy is dwarfed by more coal-related investments via stimulus and ACES funds.

So, yes, if we agree on those goals, there's a whole lot of work to be done. Right now, there's no one "in charge" who is doing anything meaningful to reduce WVa dependence on a coal economy--quite the opposite, they're doubling down on it.

You also said:

If we halt coal mining in WV thru environmental regulations and protests all we will do is further increase the demand for Western US coal, Chinese coal, etc.

First off, the point I'm making is that coal mining in WVa is on the decline regardless of any new environmental regulations or the impact of protests on public opinion.

Yes, I do accept that coal is part of the US energy portfolio. But, it is a declining part and a part that I think should be deemphasized, not recommitted to. Meanwhile, what can we do to mitigate its impact?

Well, one thing is... we can burn the lowest sulfur content coal possible and mine the coal that is the least environmentally damaging to extract. The market is already making that adjustment... thus, more Western coal and less Appalachian coal.

What really matters

Let's not ignore the elephant in the room--the whole point of my diary--West Virginia suffers from a resource curse. Coal mining takes as much as it gives.

The public policy question is: why should we continue to bolster one segment of our economy that does damage to others?

ACES is a chance to invest in Appalachian communities--so far all I hear from our Congressional delegation is ideas on how to prop up demand for coal companies.

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by: Clem Guttata @ Thu Sep 24, 2009 at 16:05:41 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Well put, jcsaunders. To meet the challenge we need to have the right perspective (4.00 / 3)

Obama promised a "wealth-based green industry", but didn't go into much detail, as far as I could tell.  And unfortunately, his "green jobs czar" was run off before he could really get the ball rolling. So its up to us.

I'm old enough to remember when West Virginia used to be a real manufacturing mecca. Think about it. From tools to weapons, from silicon chips to silicone coatings, we've been a source for aluminum, steel, plastics, Teflon, glass, and even Glyclean, used in the processing of high purity electronics & semiconductor processing.

I have a pretty good idea why we DON'T manufacture high grade alternatives like solar panels and wind turbines in WV.  Its because of the hyper-toxicity of coal-driven politics.  Big Coal simply wants to drive everyone out and turn WV into a giant moon scape. We may as well face it. As long as surface mines are allowed to proliferate and there aren't any Clean Election Laws implemented, Big Coal will be all but encouraged by our politicians to continue that course of action.

Clean election laws aside, EPA's enforcement of Clean Water Act laws and OSM strict oversight of SMCRA regs can potentially jam a crowbar into the spokes of surface mine operators.

So to turn things around we need to embrace the fact that manufacturing takes energy, and right now, WV's fossil fuels are the only source of that energy. Since Clem points out that coal production per man hour is on the wane in WV, perhaps dangling the prospect of jacking up local energy needs by luring manufacturers to come to WV is part of the political solution.  And all the while, demand that deep mining and strict environmental laws are being enforced.

Guaranteeing more deep mine operations while ramping up local energy consumption so WV can manufacture alternative energy sources can be a winning argument. I just wonder if our state leaders could be persuaded to promote the discounting of energy for the purpose of manufacturing anything "green". Seems to me that discounting energy was one major method he tried to keep those Ravenswood aluminum workers from getting laid off.  He certainly tried getting discounted energy when it came to trying to save Blenko from shutting down.

Another wealth-based green industry is cleaning up the over 400 toxic slurry injection sites, the abandoned coal mines, and the countless sludge impoundments strewn across WV.  While the WV Brownfields Redevelopment program is doing remediation in northern WV primarly using state funds, it just so happens that Don Blankenship was recently required to spend $10 million of Massey cash for remediation.

As part of the deal, Massey agreed to perform 20 water quality improvement projects along 25 miles of the Little Coal River, and to set aside 200 acres of riverfront property as protected from development. source

Now that's what I call generating shovel-ready 'wealth-based green jobs', because implementation didn't shift the responsibility onto the taxpayer.

Although there is a huge potential for a local green version of FDR's "New Deal" to be found in the remediation of hundreds of thousands of Clean Water Act permit violations, the plain truth is that there isn't the political climate for enforcement. First of all, even though there can't be any greener jobs than those engaged in remediation, neither Joe Manchin nor Randy Huffman are ever going to call them "green". Because that would then call attention to the fact that it's the EPA which has had to step in before scofflaw companies get busted.

Between January 2000 and March 2006, self-reported violations, included in reports Massey filed with regulators, amounted to 60,500 days of violations, or about 28 violations per day, according to court records.

That $20 million went into FED coffers and not WV because in all those violations over all that time, our DEP never busted them. And although $10 million is being spent towards remediation, it should have been a lot more.

It is notable that it was Bush's EPA that struck the deal.

One coal industry analyst previously cited by The Associated Press estimated Massey's potential fines at more than $2.4 billion.

So the thing that really ticks me off about the whole deal is that while the fine seemed large, it was the equivalent of only ten days worth of profit-taking by Massey.

Randy Huffman is even now stalling green jobs from being implemented by blocking the OSM from enforcing SMCRA requirements for restoring blasted-away mountains to their approximate original contour ("AOC").

This could really be a key issue towards changing the political attitude in WV regarding "green jobs". As surface mines are shut down, restoring to AOC has the potential to keep many of those dozer and other heavy equipment operators working.  And again, it has the potential of being done on the scofflaw coal operator's dime, not ours.

If only we had a REAL DEP chief.

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by: One Citizen @ Thu Sep 24, 2009 at 16:12:28 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Need you at e-council (0.00 / 0)

Great post/thread Clem, One Citizen always puts the coal debate into perspective and you don't do a bad job yourself.  The black rock and all it represents to WV is about to change and hopefully it will be the worst for coal.  It's up to our citizens to prepare for the day that coal is phased out and for so many reasons stated brilliantly on this host site WVBLUE.  There are so many proofs why coal sucks and local renewable energy systems is the clean alternative and the future of the WV economy.  We do need to produce solar panels here since we mine the raw material for them right here.  Small wind developments also make sense in certain places of our state, the huge wind development should be off shore...where the wind is and much closer to the big eastern cities, not on our beautiful forested ridges the run the length and breadth of our state.  PATH needs to be defeated to set the tone, we need many folks to step up and speak at the public hearings in Charleston.  I would implore everyone who reads this to try and make the WVEC 20th year anniversary Fall conference at Molly Grey's park in Sutton this weekend. Check out the WVEC website www.wvecouncil.org for more info.  Jim Hightower is the featured guest and there will be many surprises during the open sessions for everyone to vent on the challenges for the WV legislature and state regulatory agencies.  From what I understand e-council tries to keep tabs on ALL the environmental issues that face our citizens, it's just tough to compete with the Bill Raney's and Chris Hamilton's out there who try to undermine (no pun here pls) everything they try to accomplish.

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by: JBdem4usa @ Fri Sep 25, 2009 at 02:03:22 AM UTC