The recent events at Utah have once again turned attention towards the coal industry.Several people feel that we should reduce and eventually stop using this dirty fuel which is responsible for various diseases and is risky to produce as well.The question which begs an answer is whether the USA can ignore coal as a fuel.We need to consider various aspects of the question before attempting an answer.
Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the US.In fact it has the world's largest known coal reserves.The total demonstrated reserves are a staggering 492 billion tons of which the recoverable reserves are about267 billion tons.The bulk of these reserves about, 286 billion tons, are situated in only three states,namely Montana,Illinois and Wyoming.
In 2006 the US consumed 1.1 billion tons of coal!About 91% of this was used to generate electricity.The US generates almost 50% of its electricity from coal.At present rates of consumption and assuming that no improvements in efficiency are achieved over time the reserves will last almost 250 years.The increase in oil prices and the continuing crisis in the Middle East has once again drawn attention to coal as an alternative source of energy,more so because technology is now available to convert coal into diesel.With cleaner and quieter diesel engines having been developed it may not be long before autos are powered with fuel made from coal.Of course favorable government policies would be needed.
But there's a flip side to all this. Once coal mining is developed further it won't be long before the coal near the surface is gone.Getting at deeper deposits is both risky and expensive.Presently about two thirds of the coal is produced in surface mining.This is cheaper and considerably less risky to produce.The environmental damage too could be partly repaired by replacing the topsoil and by large scale re-forestation.Even then the environmental damage is huge.Entire mountains,streams and forests have simply disappeared or lie buried under millions of tons of rubble.
The resultant hue and cry raised by environmental groups has had an effect.In West Virginia a lawsuit was brought by an environmental group in Federal court involving mountaintop removal and valley fills.The judge in the case banned valley fills in the buffer zones around streams in 1999 thereby stopping the start of several new mines.
Over the years our power plants have become more efficient.Emissions of pollutants have gone down although power generation has increased.Nevertheless pollution caused by coal fired plants is significant and is a major cause of acid rain,smog, respiratory and other diseases.
The most harmful effect of using coal is the production of greenhouse gases.The emissions of such gases particularly Carbon Dioxide remain almost unchanged and are likely to remain so.Technology is being developed to trap and collect this carbon dioxide.But it will take time and will be expensive.It is heartening that this problem is being appreciated and there is a move not to allow new coal based plants to come up unless they trap and store the Carbon Dioxide that they produce.A lot of effort and money is being put into developing cleaner technologies.In a world concerned with global warming the economic opportunities offered are very large.
So it would seem that for the present there is no viable alternative to coal.We can only hope to learn from our past mistakes and try to avoid them in future.