King Coal is dead, long live the king (Part 2)

Part 1 of this essay pointed out a lot of positives that would come about if coal mining came alive again in West Virginia, including jobs for laid-off workers, revitalization of small towns where miners and their families live and tax revenue to benefit all of the people in the state.

Mountaintop mining

On the negative side are the environmental consequences of increased coal production, including air and water pollution and the practice of stripping away tops of mountains to get to the coal underneath. There are many issues but here are a few:

One of the more controversial techniques employed by the coal industry is “mountaintop removal,” in which the tops of mountains are blown away using explosives. As a result, the landscape is changed significantly and streams may be covered with rock and dirt. The water draining from these filled valleys may contain pollutants that can harm aquatic wildlife downstream and find their way into sources of drinking water.

Blasting at mountaintop removal sites also expels dust and fly-rock into the air, which can disturb or settle onto private property nearby. This dust may contain sulfur compounds which corrode structures and pose a health hazard.

To be fair, mountaintop removal sites by law must be reclaimed after mining is complete, but in fact, reclamation has traditionally focused on stabilizing rock formations and controlling for erosion, and not on the reforestation of the affected area. Seldom do reclaimed mine sites look anything like what was there before.

Underground mining has its own set of problems, although not considered to be as much of an environmental hazard. In underground mining, methane gas must be vented out of mines to make them a safe place to work. Methane is one of the greenhouse gases which trap and hold heat in the atmosphere, which ultimately leads to global warming.

Acid mine drainage

Acidic water can drain from abandoned underground mines into rivers and streams, and the ground above mine tunnels can even collapse – a condition called mine subsidence – destroying anything built above the mine. The town of Fairmont in the vicinity of First, Second and Third streets is a case study in mine subsidence.

  

Historically, most of the coal mined in West Virginia was burned to generate electricity, which produces emissions that include sulfur dioxide, which contributes to acid rain and respiratory illnesses; nitrogen oxides, which contribute to smog and respiratory illnesses; particulates, which contribute to smog, haze, respiratory illnesses and lung disease; carbon dioxide, which is the primary greenhouse gas emission produced from the burning of fossil fuels; mercury and other heavy metals, which have been linked to both neurological and developmental damage in humans and other animals; and fly ash and bottom ash residue which must be captured by pollution control devices.

That’s why the Clean Air Act and its subsequent amendments have been enacted and why President Obama sought to strengthen environmental regulations to protect people’s health and minimize the contribution of fossil fuels to global climate change. The net effect did, in fact, result in the loss of some coal jobs and the label “war on coal” that essentially turned West Virginia from a blue state to red, but one man's "war on coal" is another man's fight to protect the planet.

Realistically, President Obama’s EPA regulations became only the latest chapter in the long history of coal mining that has been written over the past 100 years. Power companies have spent billions of dollars on technology to reduce coal plant emissions, and billions more would be required to meet more stringent environmental rules.

The cheaper alternative has been to close coal plants and convert to cleaner and less expensive natural gas, especially gas from shale rock like the Marcellus seam through West Virginia.

By any reasonable standard, the trend has been steadily downward for the coal industry which makes it easy for outsiders to suggest two things: the state desperately needs to diversify its economy and those coal jobs – lost since 1920 – are just not coming back.

It will be interesting to see what President Trump and Governor Justice can do in light of their campaign promises. The odds are against them, but then neither one of them was ever supposed to get elected, so there’s that.