Not Drinking the Kool-Aid … Or the Water: Part Three

EARLIER IN SERIES:

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION AND QUESTION  NO. 1

PART TWO: QUESTIONS NO. 2-6

Question No. 7.  You indicated that “Coal Keeps the Lights On.”  Is that always going to be the case?

Answer No. 7.  I don’t know.  There really are three unknowns.  First, some people worry that we eventually will run out of coal.  Second, some people worry that some type of technological breakthrough will make coal obsolete.  Third, some people worry that environmental regulators in Washington, DC or even West Virginia might make the permitting process impossible or effectively force power plants and other big users of coal to move to other sources of energy.

Question No 8.  Do you think West Virginia will run out of coal?

Answer No. 8.  Of course, we eventually would run out (at least of mineable coal) some day if we continue to mine coal as we are present … and there’s a new report suggesting that this may occur sooner rather than later, with our being only 10 years away from peak coal production.

Question No. 9.  Do you think we should be concerned about some type of technological breakthrough that might make coal obsolete?

Answer No. 9.  Yes.  Necessity being the mother of invention, we always seem to be finding new and better ways of doing things.  With all the money being invested by the Obama Administration in everything “green,” its certainly possible that a revolution in the ways in which we capture and use energy could occur.  We’re spending $2 billion alone to figure out how to build better batteries; a battery breakthrough could have implications for all energy sectors.

Question No. 10.  Do you think environmental regulators in Washington, DC would stop West Virginia from producing coal?

Answer No. 10.  With President Obama on record as opposing mountaintop removal and his nominee to head the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement dodging the question, it’s certainly possible – indeed probable – that it will become more difficult for companies to obtain mining permits.

Question No. 11.  How about West Virginia?

Answer No. 11.  I don’t think you have any concerns about the politicians in Charleston doing anything to curb coal mining operations because the state is so dependent on severance tax revenues.  The federal judges, however, may be a different story.  Three federal judges – Haden, Chambers and most recently Goodwin – have tried to stop loose mountaintop removal permitting processes.  Each time their decision has been reversed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.  As President Obama begins to replace judges on the Fourth Circuit, I suspect things may begin to change.

Question No. 12.  So you’re telling me that mountaintop removal coal mining is not the only economic issue facing West Virginia’s coal miners, their families, their friends and neighbors, and the State of West Virginia?

Answer No. 12.  That’s exactly what I am telling you.  Coal might not always keep the lights on.

We dig through a million tons of rock and clay

And we’ll still be digging at the end of the day.

– Author Unknown, Kentucky Coal Miner’s Prayer

~ by Dennis Taylor on 8 August 2009.