A LOOK AT COAL, COAL MINING, AND ENERGY:
Few things seem as anachronistic as an underground coal mine. Black-faced miners in lamps and hard hats; coal trains and company towns — the images are seared in our brains and in our folklore. Images of an old smokestack economy that’s largely been supplanted by the industrial might of the semiconductor. Except that all those computers, HDTVs, groovy little iPods and other silicon-chip wonders would fall silent if it weren’t for coal. Wind, water, nuclear, oil, natural gas, solar energies — add them all up and together they barely produce as much electricity as coal.
Last year, America consumed more than 1 billion tons of the mineral. At the present rate, using existing extraction technology, the reserves will last 243 years. Coal is dramatically cheap to mine, too: In 2005 it cost $8.66 to produce a million BTU of oil; the equivalent energy from coal cost $1.19. About two-thirds of America’s favorite fossil fuel comes from surface mines (about 778 million tons); the rest is produced in underground mines, mainly in Appalachia.
But according to this Wall Street Journal story interest in coal is suddenly plummeting:
As recently as May, U.S. power companies had announced intentions to build as many as 150 new generating plants fueled by coal, which currently supplies about half the nation’s electricity. One reason for the surge of interest in coal was concern over the higher price of natural gas, which has driven up electricity prices in many places. Coal appeared capable of softening the impact since the U.S. has deep coal reserves and prices are low.
But as plans for this fleet of new coal-powered plants move forward, an increasing number are being canceled or development slowed. Coal plants have come under fire because coal is a big source of carbon dioxide, the main gas blamed for global warming, in a time when climate change has become a hot-button political issue.
Just remember, the electricity has to come from somewhere. And when the brownouts and blackouts start, will people blame the environmentalists, or the power companies — and politicians?