West Virginia Blue
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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.
Jim Motavalli at E/The Environmental Magazine writes about "The Myth of Clean Coal." There is one view that strong coal advocates like West Virginia's own Rep. Nick Rahall (WV-03) promotes.
Can coal be clean? Congressman Nick Rahall (D-WV), who has proposed legislation to subsidize "clean coal," says it can. He thinks the answer to foreign oil dependence is right here at home, buried in West Virginia's ancient mountains. He envisions $35-a-barrel oil produced from a homegrown resource: abundant coal. With very little prompting, Rahall will tell you that with coal-to-liquid technology we can "revolutionize our way to a new energy era."
Greenhouse gas emissions won't be a problem, he says, because the new plants Rahall's legislation envisions would sequester the carbon dioxide (CO2) so it never reaches the atmosphere. The resulting liquid fuel, he says, will be cleaner than required by the Environmental Protection Agency's strong Tier II standards.
And, then there is the more scientifically sound view that others promote.
Alas, the dirty secret is that "clean coal" is anything but. The process involves heating coal to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and mixing it with water to produce a gas, then converting the gas into diesel fuel. Although the industry-sponsored Coal-to-Liquids Coalition says that CO2 emissions from the entire production cycle of liquid coal are "equal to, or slightly below, those of conventional petroleum-derived fuels," its claims are based on a single federal study, now six years old.
Jim Presswood, federal energy advocate of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) says, "Liquid CO2 emissions are twice as much as emissions from conventional petroleum-derived fuels." He says that even if CO2 emissions are sequestered as part of the process, at best liquid coal would be 12 percent worse than the gasoline equivalent. As some environmentalists have put it, liquid coal can turn any hybrid Prius into a Hummer.
Of course, any discussion of "clean" coal is incomplete without mention of the social, ecological, and environmental costs of coal mining.
The flipside of the coal lobby's empty promises and ready cash (the Bush campaign secured $530,560 from coal companies and electric utilities in the 2000 cycle, reports EarthJustice) is the harsh reality of mountaintop removal mining. This now-standard practice in the Southeast coalfields is efficient only in delivering coal companies windfall profits. It has left an incalculable toll in shattered lives, permanently destroyed environments and polluted groundwater.
I agree with Rep. Rahall on many issues -- he's been great when it comes to Iraq, for example -- but he risks undermining his credibility if he continues to serve as an uncritical booster of all things coal.
The issues with coal-fired power plant emissions are well chronicled - increased lung and cardiovascular disease, loss of visibility, and (somewhat importantly) the complete shattering of our global climactic patterns.
Many are also seeing for the first time that extracting coal is as destructive (and socially expensive) as emitting coal. Mountaintop removal and strip mining are decimating the majestic Appalachian Mountains - the oldest mountains on this continent. More than 1 million acres have been blasted away, and shoved recklessly into creek-beds and hollows. 1200+ miles of headwater streams have been buried, poisoning the water for us and those who live down stream.
The ancient hardwood forests of Appalachia (themselves an important carbon sink in our war on CO2) are often shoved aside with the mountain, left to rot and clog our streams without even being commercially harvested. The "rape" of Appalachia, as Senator Webb has called it.
How much coal would be "worth it?"
100 years?
250 years?
500 years?
Peak Oil: Have you heard of Peak Oil? Watch the video for an brief introduciton. It's one of those crazy ideas that just happens to be, well, looking (unfortunately), not so crazy. The video is of King Hubbert (yes, that's his name) who correctly predicted (within one year) Peak Oil for US48 before it occurred. Well, this week Business Week (of all places) has the news. With a hat-tip to Jerome a Paris, here's what we learn in Business Week:
Peak oil refers to the point at which world oil production plateaus before beginning to decline as depletion of the world's remaining reserves offsets ever-increased drilling. Some experts argue that we're already there, and that we won't exceed by much the daily production high of 84.5 million barrels first reached in 2005. If so, global production will bump along near these levels for years before beginning an inexorable decline.
What would that mean? Alternatives are still a decade away from meeting incremental demand for oil. With nothing to fill the gap, global economic growth would slow, stop, and then reverse; international tensions would soar as nations seek access to diminishing supplies, enriching autocratic rulers in unstable oil states; and, unless other sources of energy could be ramped up with extreme haste, the world could plunge into a new Dark Age. Even as faltering economies burned less oil, carbon loading of the atmosphere might accelerate as countries turn to vastly dirtier coal.
What does the author recommend?
The reality is that it will be here much sooner for the U.S.—in the form of peak oil exports. Since we import nearly two-thirds of the oil we consume, global oil available for export should be our bigger concern. Fast-growing domestic consumption in oil-exporting nations and increasing appetites by big importers such as China portend tighter supplies available to the U.S., unless world production rises rapidly. But output has stalled. Call it de facto peak oil or peak oil lite. It means the U.S. is entering an age when it will have to scramble to maintain existing import levels.
[snip]
There are many things we in the U.S. can do (and should have been doing) other than the present policy of crossing our fingers. If an oil tax makes sense from a climate change perspective, it seems doubly worthy if it extends supplies. Boosting efficiency and scaling up alternatives must also be a priority. And, recognizing that nations will turn to cheap coal (recently, 80% of growth in coal use has come from China), more work is needed to defang this fuel, which produces more carbon dioxide per ton than any other energy source.
Coal: Ken Ward, Jr. has the news, Lori at Truth & Progress has the analysis: "Coal operators cannot evade the Clean Water Act by building sediment-treatment ponds just downstream from strip mine valley fills, a federal judge ruled Wednesday."
Liquid Coal: Lots of people are learning about West Virginia's coal mining problems as part of the current Energy Bill debate. Thank you shadiawood for highlighting Marsh Fork Elementary School during yesterday's press conference. Congratulations on your press coverage: Washington Post (great pictures!), CNS (great article), UPI (ditto).
Coal: How long until we reach Peak Coal, the point at which over half of the world's coal supply has been mined? One recent estimate is 2025.
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Many are also seeing for the first time that extracting coal is as destructive (and socially expensive) as emitting coal. Mountaintop removal and strip mining are decimating the majestic Appalachian Mountains - the oldest mountains on this continent. More than 1 million acres have been blasted away, and shoved recklessly into creek-beds and hollows. 1200+ miles of headwater streams have been buried, poisoning the water for us and those who live down stream. 
