What if every time you flipped a light switch, a mountain exploded?

At the risk of sounding sensationalist, this scenario involving electricity from coal isn’t that far from the truth.

But first things first. Information taken directly from the Department of Energy’s website has this to say about electricity from coal:

“Coal is one of the true measures of the energy strength of the United States. One quarter of the world’s coal reserves are found within the United States, and the energy content of the nation’s coal resources exceeds that of all the world’s known recoverable oil. Coal is also the workhorse of the nation’s electric power industry, supplying more than half the electricity consumed by Americans.

Coal-fired electric generating plants are the cornerstone of America's central power system. To preserve this economically-vital energy foundation, innovative, low-cost environmental compliance technologies and efficiency-boosting innovations are being developed by the Energy Department's Fossil Energy research program.

To tap the full potential of the nation’s enormous coal supplies, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy is working with the private sector to develop innovative technologies for an emission-free coal plant of the future.

This research and development program is pioneering more effective pollution controls for existing coal-fired power plants and an array of new technologies that would eliminate air and water pollutants from the next generation of power plants. Research is also underway to capture the greenhouse gases emitted by coal plants and prevent them from entering the atmosphere.”

From a clean air perspective, this sounds fantastic. President Bush’s Clean Coal Power Initiative provides government co-financing for the research and development of new coal technologies to reduce sulfur, nitrogen and mercury levels from coal-fired power plants by 70 percent by the year 2018. The same Department of Energy website gives information about the status of that project: From its inception in 2002, milestones have included two rounds of selections of projects – one in 2003 and the second one in 2004 – in which a total of twelve projects were selected for development. Only six have made it through to the actual development stage. It should be noted that these projects are not six new clean coal-fired power plants – these are six new projects to research how coal can be burned cleanly. A third round is underway currently, with a focus on projects to that utilize carbon sequestration technology. So, not so much about reducing toxic emissions, but more about how to make part of them conveniently go away after production. And the bottom line is, of the 600-plus coal-fired power plants currently operating in the United States, there are zero coal-fired power plants in operation that capture significant amounts of global warming pollutants. The impact of burning coal to generate electricity is undeniable, with carbon emissions and other dangerous greenhouse gases predicted to continue to rise if we stay on the same path.

The lesser known but equally damaging impact of burning coal for electricity is in the destruction of some of the most beautiful mountains in the world, and the coal-rich Appalachians are the primary target.

The history of coal mining in the United States brings to mind images of the soot-smudged faces of the hard working coal miner working in under ground mines. However, the petroleum shortages of the 70’s increased the demand for coal, and the mining industry began the controversial strip mining method known as mountaintop removal (MTR). Coal could be extracted more efficiently through mechanization and with fewer paid laborers. While the coal companies save money with this method, the environmental price is steep – very steep.

I won’t spend this particular post outlining the details of how MTR works – you can read a general outline here . In a shortened and editorialized version, forests are being razed, topsoil is being cleared (supposedly saved for later restoration), and substrate (all the rock that makes up the mountain from the top down to the coal seams) is blasted away with dynamite and then dumped into valleys and streams. Regardless of the permits required and the EPA “oversight”, toxic waste slurry regularly finds its way into Appalachian streams. Ecosystems are permanently altered, and mountains don’t just grow back. A sludge spill in Kentucky in 2000 contaminated hundreds of miles of the Tug Fork River tributaries. Not only was water for 27,000 residents contaminated, but all aquatic life in that stretch of water was killed.

As Americans, we are generally oblivious as to where our electricity comes from – all we are concerned with is the amount we have to pay each month to our local electric company. We grumble about the cost of cooling our homes in the summer, yet we fill our homes with electricity-sucking appliances and entertainment. We light our homes brightly, we leave TV’s running when we aren’t even in the room. We have one or more computers operating most of the time. Wii’s, Playstations, and DVD players hook up to our enormous HDTVs. Our razors are electric, and our appliances are all sucking electricity even when they aren’t turned on via those ubiquitous digital clocks. This time of year, homes are decorated in holiday splendor that usually requires electricity.

So what is my point in all of this?

I have been a typical American up to this point… blissfully unaware of MTR. The documentary “Kilowatt Ours” certainly opened my eyes, and I’ve been feverishly researching MTR and coal-as-power ever since. The coal industry has commercials in heavy rotation, advertising “clean coal”, when in fact it is anything but clean. Whether coal is being burned in ways that pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, or mined in ways that destroy mountains forever, it is ruining our Blue Planet.

So how can we solve the problem?

Just like petroleum and mountains, coal doesn’t grow back. As a nation, we must switch from dirty and non-renewable fuel sources to clean, renewable resources such as wind and solar energy. We must press our elected officials to encourage the growth of the renewable energy program, and in the protection of our beautiful mountains. At the very least, we must… must… MUST reduce our individual energy use. The less energy we use, the less coal required for power. Simply put, turn off lights that you don’t need, unplug systems you aren’t using, and use CFLs instead of traditional incandescent bulbs.

It should also be noted that coal mining has a significant economic impact on the residents of the Appalachians, one of the poorest areas of our nation. However, that is another post for another day. For now, I’m off to unplug some things.


Sources:

http://www.energy.gov/energysources/coal.htm (12/2008)
http://action.thisisreality.org/facts
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountaintop_removal_mining
http://www.ilovemountains.org/resources
http://www.kilowattours.org/

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