Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future

Review By: John Woolf, Compare Book Suit
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If you are reading this article, chances are you are in a well-lit air-conditioned room using your computer. Most of us do not really think about electrical power, just so long as it is available and does not cost very much. Or so we think. Few of us realize that over half of all of the power we consume comes from coal-fired power plants with the average American consuming about 20 pounds of the black rock each and every day. But what are the true costs (the impact that is not reflected in your utility bill) of seemingly cheap energy served up by the coal industry? Using an easy reading narrative style, veteran journalist Jeff Goodell's new book, Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future is a mix of investigative reporting and business analysis that is nevertheless hard hitting and compelling. The book adeptly exposes the collusion of industry and politics that is deeply imbedded in the coal business of the 21st century. But this collusion comes at a steep price. When massive environmental, economic and health cost are factored in, doing business as usual comes at a far higher price. And the long-term effects are not yet accounted for. This becomes ever more urgent in light of the fact that we live in a world of diminishing oil resources, and given the high price and unreliable sources of other fossil fuels, our coal consumption is expected to explode. We seem to have little choice, given that we have failed to come up with an alternative energy sources. And, for better or worse, we are the Saudi-Arabia of coal (although we might have far less coal that is economically feasible to extract than we have been led to believe).

However, from an economical perspective, in every region where coal mining has prospered, poverty, sickness and local environmental ruin is evident. The economics of mineral extraction is such that it tends to dominate a region, cultivating low-skilled workers, large-scale environmental wreckage, with the wealth going mostly into the company coffers. After the mineral resource and the working class poor are consumed, the mining companies move on leaving little of worth to those left behind. Big Coal points to West Virginia as a good example. After 150 years and some 13 billion tons of coal later, it is evident that the great wealth of natural resources has not been a godsend to those who live there. As the book points out, "by virtually every indicator of a state's economic and social well-being- educational achievement, employment rate, income level- West Virginia remains at or near the bottom of the list."

Given the our current geo-political situation in the world, the question is not if we are going to burn more coal. It is how (with what technologies) are we going to burn coal. Big Coal describes how most of America's coal-fired plants use essentially the same methods for burning coal as we did in the 19th century and account for over 40% of our CO2 emissions. And there continues to be little impetus from the "good old boys" to change the status quo, whether the earth is running a temperature or not. Meanwhile, the American Lung Association calculates that 24,000 Americans die prematurely on an annual basis due to coal-fired pollution. While there have been some slow improvements in areas of pollution control, these large behemoths still pump out enormous amounts of pollutants of every stripe, including toxic metals, especially mercury. One way to look at coal-fired plants, is that they are in effect huge mercury extractors, pumping tons of this toxic metal into the atmosphere every year. Although thinly diluted across much of the landscape and bodies of water, no amount is safe. Mercury, however, becomes increasingly "concentrated" as it inescapably works its way up the food chain and ultimately into human consumption from a variety of sources.

Despite the problems the coal industrial complex (business mixed with politics) challenges us with, Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future is optimistic that viable solutions can be implemented. For example, prudent resource taxes could be dedicated to help offset the negative impacts of mining operations on communities and the environment. This approach has worked well in other places, and could be applied to coal operations. In addition, a new generation of turbine/ coal gasification plants could start replacing conventional "big metal box" coal-fired plants. These are more efficient, consume far less water, produce half as much solid waste and are nearly as clean as burning natural gas. With this new technology, carbon dioxide could easily and cost effectively be captured and sequestered underground vastly reducing our impact on global warming and the rest of the environment. All we lack is the political will to overcome the inertia of an industry suck in the 19th century. Unfortunately, we are running out of time and little is being done.