COAL: THE FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY THAT IS BECOMING A FOSSIL ITSELF

 

…US Coal Mining at the turn of the century

 

Coal is dirty, messy, expensive to mine and a major health hazard.

Those that follow my articles and blog know that I am a long-time Northern Californian, but many know that I was actually born in Virginia. 

The family on my mother’s side worked for many generations as Southern coal and lead miners and they lived and died after many years of living in those “company mining towns” that became so numerous in the East and the South by the turn of the century.

As with many of those company mining towns, the town where I was born in the Blue Ridge Mountains no longer exists.  Today, there are only a few of the old company houses still standing, and of course the local churches are still there and functioning.  But the mines and the town have both disappeared.

The reality is that coal in particular, is slowly and thankfully leaving as a major source of energy here in the United States.

In addition, with all the automation in the mining of coal over the last 3 decades, with mines closing and with automation, the employment figures for the coal industry are at less than 50% of what they were just 30 years ago. 

Coal is by far the dirtiest of all the fossil energy sources.  In  fact, according to the EPA, coal-fired electric power generation produces 2,000 pounds of atmospheric CO-2 for every megawatt of power generated.  By comparison, natural gas produces just over 1,000 pounds of CO-2.

But wait, coal pollution doesn’t stop there.  Yes, coal produces more particulate emissions in ground-level air than any other power source.  However, coal also puts out a hell of a lot of things besides CO-2 in the air.  Things like Mercury, Uranium, Fly Ash, Sulfur Dioxide (which quickly forms into Hyposulfurous Acid), Arsenic, and Selenium. These are all serious pollutants that naturally occur in the burning of coal.

But let’s get down to what’s causing the use of coal in the US to finally start dying. 

As much as the Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell and the right-wing nut cases want to rant about Obama’s “War on Coal”, what’s really driving this is the increased availability and plummeting price of Natural Gas.  As usual, it’s always about the money.  In January of 2008, coal was trading at close to $140 per US ton.  Right now it’s at $53.54 per US ton.   That the biggest hurt.

And one must remember, coal is not easy or cheap to produce.  It has to be mined and trucked from remote locations.  Its messy, dirty, heavy, expensive and slow to produce. With the current abundance of cheap natural gas and a booming alternative energy market of wind and solar, coal is running out of options for competing and the new markets are moving…..and this is all occurring at an accelerated pace.

The word on coal going-down is now out, and the closing of coal power plants and coal mines is telling the whole story.

There was an article last month marking the 150th coal power plant closure since 2010, and it happened to be the Brayton Point plant in Massachusetts.  This was one of the single worst polluters in the country.  Last week the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced that it is closing 8 more coal plants in Alabama and Kentucky, including all 5 coal units in the notorious Colbert Fossil Plant in Tuscumbia, AL.  As of 2006, that power plant alone put 8,312,926 tons of Carbon Dioxide and 40,000 tons of Sulfur Dioxide into the local air.  It is now on a path to be producing zip.  Unfortunately, it will still take months or possibly years to actually get all of these power plants turned off.

…The TVA will now be depending more on energy from TVA Dams, instead of mining and burning coal

The good news is that the same thing is happening to the coal mines.

The US coal producer James River Coal Company has idled half of its Central Appalachian mines.   These were mines that had actively produced 3.7 million tons of coal in 2012 and are now producing zero.  The company also announced that they were immediately closing four more mines in Kentucky.  These four mines in the Buckeye Complex in Mitch McConnell’s Eastern Kentucky had already produced 1 million tons in the first nine months of 2013, but are now producing zero.  The market is also seeing what’s going on as the James River Coal Company’s stock which broke at $25/share in 2011, is today trading at $1.34/share.

Patriot Coal has been in bankruptcy since mid-2012 and is seeking court approval to re-emerge.  But Patriot has closed its West Virginia mine and its stock is at around $0.09/share.  Why they are trying to re-emerge is a real mystery.

Arch Coal is one of the world’s largest coal producers.  Arch shut down four mines resulting in a loss of 3 million tons of coal production.  In March 2011, Arch Coal Inc (NYSE:ACI) traded in the low to mid $30’s; today their stock is $4.19/share.

In 2012, Frasure Creek Coal said bankruptcy was not in the company’s plans, but in early 2013, the parent company was forced into bankruptcy.

But it’s not just the coal workers that are being affected.   The giant trucks used to haul coal were made by Caterpillar at a plant in Virginia.  Caterpillar has now announced that the plant is closing

Oh, some have asked, “Isn’t this just how it all works?  You know, the old plants go down, new plants start up.  Old mines close, new mines are opened or dug, right?” 

Well, not anymore.  

The Sierra Club has reported that 179 proposed coal plants have been canceled.  The industry has also conceded that the new EPA rules for applying for new permits make today’s coal mining almost impossible.  

 

…This is what the future of energy will look like after our generation is gone from this land.

 

But of course, the Republicans are doing everything they can in trying to get the EPA rules rolled back so they can continue to, “burn, baby, burn!”

Fortunately, Obama’s new coal policy rules make it clear that US funds via the World Bank and IMF are not to be used to back new coal powered plants anywhere in the world.

Yes, with the exception of China, the coal industry is going nowhere but down.  China and India will continue to prop coal up in their countries, but even there, things are slowly moving in a much cleaner direction.

Finally, Clean Line Energy Partners is planning a $2 billion HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) system across several US states to replace this retiring fossil fuel generation with new wind/solar-powered energy.

Thankfully, we are seeing some light at the end of the centuries-long tunnel-of-coal.

Copyright G.Ater  2014