Posted on 06/23/2012 5:34:22 AM PDT by Kaslin
Coal today may seem of little relevance to many residents of New York City or other American urban centers. It long ago ceased to fuel the furnaces of their homes and apartment buildings in winter.
But long after it disappeared from the uses most visible to city dwellers, coal is still the critical fuel behind the everyday functions of their lives. Across the U.S., for more than a century, coal has remained quietly at work – providing in recent years nearly half the electricity that lights urban buildings and streets, keeps air conditioners humming on hot days and energizes computers and TVs to inform and entertain. Electricity generated with coal powers the factories that produce all manner of food, clothing, cars and other goods for Americans everywhere.
Coal maintains that role with good reason. It is America’s most abundant energy resource; our coal reserves are the world’s largest, sufficient to last more than 250 years. That abundance makes coal affordable; over the decades its price has been far more stable that of another major power generation fuel, natural gas. And way below costs those promising but still-unproven resources, solar and wind power.
Meanwhile, science has made coal a much cleaner fuel. Utilities’ use of coal for power generation has jumped more than 180 percent since 1970 but emissions from those plants have plummeted 75 percent. And the march of technology promises even cleaner coal in the years ahead.
Apparently, all those facts have escaped the attention of New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg. This month, he marshaled 90 U.S. mayors behind a campaign of misinformation that could in short order end the use of coal for power generation – and in doing so wipe out America’s historic coal industry.
In a letter to the EPA Administrator, Bloomberg and his fellow mayors expressed strong support for new air quality regulations that will shut down coal fired power generation on the grounds that coal is too “dirty” and must immediately be replaced with generation fueled by natural gas, solar and wind power.
Joining Mayor Bloomberg on the letter were my successor as Mayor of Cincinnati, Mark Mallory, two other Ohio mayors (Michael Coleman of Columbus and Bruce Rinker of Mayfield Village), the senior elected officials of big cities from Atlanta to Boston Chicago, Denver, Houston and Los Angeles, and the chief executives of smaller but staunchly “progressive” strongholds such as Burlington, VT, Takoma Park, MD, Maui County, HI, and Decatur, GA.
With one stroke of the pen, all wrote off the fuel that has helped make possible a century of economic growth in their cities. They accepted the higher electric rates that utility executives say are certainly on the way as today’s historically low natural gas prices zoom upward while wind and solar power, for the foreseeable future, remain very expensive.
The mayors also agreed, in signing that letter, to condemn the jobs of 555,000 Americans who mine, transport, market and utilize coal, along with their combined annual income of $36.3 billion.
All of this comes less than a year after Mayor Bloomberg announced plans to donate $50 million to the Sierra Club to support its nationwide campaign to eliminate coal-fired power plants.
On many levels, I have great respect and admiration for my fellow Republican, Mayor Bloomberg. Elected in the dark days just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he helped rebuild the city both physically and emotionally. In that and other roles he has followed a course of pragmatic progressivism, addressing public concerns on social – and environmental – issues with a common-sense approach that recognizes economic realities.
So I am surprised and very disappointed that he would lead his mayoral colleagues in demonizing a valuable American energy resource, assuring higher utility bills for Americans still strapped by a slow economic recovery, and wiping out one of our oldest industries.
My personal commitment to cleaning up and protecting our environment runs deep. I’m proud of the progress America has made these past 40 years from a land of smoggy skylines and dead rivers to one that is getting cleaner by the day.
But I also understand that our environmental ideals must be balanced with recognition of our economic challenges, both short- and long-term. We can’t build a stronger economy and create the millions of jobs we need if we’re paying sharply higher utility bills and killing a half million good-paying jobs in the process.
Numerous polls show that the majority of Americans share that pragmatism. I thought Michael Bloomberg was among them, until I saw that letter to the EPA Administrator.
Does the wookie join in, ala a trois ?
I’m going to assume Mayor Mike has friends in the middle east whose well-being is threatened by America’s energy independence.
Well, he had me until this little passage. Give me a break! Every one of these mayors D or R and fake R (in the case of Bloomberg) should lose their jobs.
Apparently, all those facts have escaped the attention of New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg. This month, he marshaled 90 U.S. mayors behind a campaign of misinformation that could in short order end the use of coal for power generation – and in doing so wipe out America’s historic coal industry.
In a letter to the EPA Administrator, Bloomberg and his fellow mayors expressed strong support for new air quality regulations that will shut down coal fired power generation on the grounds that coal is too “dirty” and must immediately be replaced with generation fueled by natural gas, solar and wind power.
...and the rest of us have but two days left to counter Bloomberg’s deception. That is how much time is left for public comment to the EPA before they rule on the issue.
Found here:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2898160/posts
I live in an anthracite coal region. The industry is moribund already. Some communities look like Starnesville in Atlas Shrugged. Centralia is still burning, coal operations seen along the highway are abandoned. Young people raised here try to leave, old people struggle on with assistance, and urban refugees on assistance are coming in, attracted by low taxes, low crime, low real estate prices. Meanwhile the older residents still call this area the “Saudi Arabia of coal.” Except in Saudi Arabia you’d be allowed to take it out of the ground and sell it without much of a hassle.
PS: If you’re wondering, the major economic enterprise around here is health care. That’s where the (government) money is, and a high percentage of senior citizens to bait the hook.
I happen to be familiar with a quiet, ongoing initiative to deal with the energy idiocy coming out of places like New York City. Those of you who live in that sh!t-hole can rest assured that your lights and air conditioners will not be shut off anytime soon. The major utility companies -- who are run by people who have forgotten far more about energy than Bloomberg will ever know -- are looking at a major expansion of grid capacity to deal with their top priority right now. This priority involves replacing the electrical generating capacity from the Indian Point nuclear plant in a worst-case scenario where political forces successfully quash its attempt to renew its Federal operating permits in 2013. In that scenario, Hydro-Quebec will become one of the top providers of electricity for New York City.
Anything related to coal is already being addressed. Despite all of the political whining and "environmental concerns" we've heard from New York in recent years, the governor's office in Albany is ready to give quiet approval for drilling and fracking operations in the Marcellus Shale region of western New York State. Even Andy Cuomo recognizes the idiocy of prohibiting shale gas extraction in New York while lots of money is being made in this industry just across the border in Pennsylvania. New drilling projects are underway in West Virginia and North Carolina (Appalachia has its day once again). Any remaining coal-fired plants in the Northeast are likely to be converted to natural gas once these gas resources are developed and coal becomes extraneous as a fuel for generating electricity.
I’d be curious to know how much of the coal from that region was ever used to generate electricity for public utilities. My understanding is that Pennsylvania coal was used almost entirely as fuel for steam locomotives, and as coking fuel for steel mills. I suspect the transition from steam to diesel locomotives and the decline of the steel industry in Pennsylvania were bigger factors in the decline of the anthracite coal industry than anything else.
I was just going to post the exact same thing, but you said it better. They should be stood against a wall, dammit!
I’m curious too, and any native, old-timer here could tell you with authority, but I know more about racehorses than I do about coal.
(That said, I know a Starnesville when I see one, and central PA, sitting on an enormous field of black gold, is full of them.)
***Mayor Bloomberg announced plans to donate $50 million to the Sierra Club to support its nationwide campaign to eliminate coal-fired power plants. ***
Chesepeake Energy (natural gas) gave the Sierra Club twenty five million dollars to lobby against coal for power plants. This was before fracking became an issue.
http://onlinedigitalpubs.com/publication/?i=105175
Go to page 24. Arkansas Living, April 2012
A Question of Integrity by Carmie Henry.
Profile of the Pennsylvania Coal Industry
Reserves
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates the demonstrated US coal reserve base at 496 billion tons distributed geographically among 31 states; with 27 billion tons in Pennsylvania. At current consumption levels, coal supplies will be available for at least the next 250 years. In fact, on an energy equivalent basis, the 5,441 quadrillion BTUs of US coal surpasses the 4,446 quadrillion BTUs of Middle East oil.
Production
Pennsylvania is the fourth leading coal producing state, mining 68 million tons last year. Almost 80 percent of this output came from 39 underground mines and the remainder from 377 surface mining and reprocessing sites.
Economic Value
In addition, the Pennsylvania mining industry constitutes a major source of employment and tax revenue. Last year, it created 49,100 direct and indirect jobs with a total payroll in excess of $2.2 billion. Taxes on these wages netted over $700 million to the coffers of federal, state and local governments.
Markets
The steam coal market is the largest customer for Pennsylvania coal. About 75 percent of Pennsylvania’s annual bituminous coal production goes to the electricity utility sector.
Coal has been and will continue to be the major fuel of choice for electricity generation. Fifty percent of the United State’s electricity is generated by coal and coal accounted for 56 percent of the total amount of electricity produced in Pennsylvania last year.
Source: http://www.pacoalassn.com/pa-coal-industry-profile.html
This will never happen, but what if all the electrical power companies that use coal to create the electricity they sell went on a 24 or 48 hour strike. They all announce that beginning on a specific date, they will turn off their generators and shut down the furnaces and thus stop POLLUTING WITH DIRTY NASTY UNWANTED COAL. And it would be good to do this either in the winter when it is coldest or during the hottest days of the summer and see what Nannayor Bloomberg thinks about sitting in his sealed window office without air conditioning.
or f'got to pay the electric bill
or thought you did, but didn't
or the gas guage was broken on your car and you miscalculated
or
They would go to jail. They do have (at lest the regulated segment) a legal duty to provide power if possible. To intentionally shut it down would be a crime. The un regulated segments (the Independent Power Producers) have contractual obligations with very stiff non-performance penalties.
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