In this video CONSOL Energy CEO, Brett Harvey, talks about the company’s purchase of natural gas assets from Dominion Resources. He seems to think highly of the potential for natural gas. A quote: “Natural Gas will be the chosen fuel.” (Consol already owns a lot of coal mines between the surface and the Marcellus Shale which create conflicting land use problems when drilling for natural gas.)
In Bangladesh, hundreds of people have initiated a hunger strike in front of the gates of a coal mining company. They are demanding compensation for subsidence damage that occurred to their homes above the company’s mine.
An article in the New York times points to the enormous enthusiasm for renewable energy projects. However, many in the energy industry believe that the ability of renewable energy to make a substantial contribution to total energy demand is overrated.
The Department of Energy is awarding a $154 million grant to NRG Energy, a company that will create a carbon capture and storage project at a 60-megawatt coal-burning power plant in Texas.
The Ground Truth Trekking Blog has a collection of articles on the theme of “Coal in Alaska”. The state has enormous coal resources from lignite through anthracite – but it can be hard to transport the coal to distant markets at a competitive price.
The Short-Term Energy Outlook of EIA reports…. “CO2 emissions from fossil fuels fell by an estimated 6.3 percent in 2009. Emissions from coal led the drop in 2009 CO2 emissions, falling by nearly 11 percent. Declines in energy consumption in the industrial sector (a result of the weak economy) and changes in electricity generation sources are the primary reasons for the decline in CO2 emissions.
Coal-fired power plants produce over 100 million tons of fly ash and other combustion wastes every year. Although some of this material is recycled there is still a huge disposal and handling problem. Many people want more regulation of coal combustion wastes.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it will take the financial welfare of small businesses into consideration when emission standards are put into place.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection completed an investigation that blames longwall mining for damage suffered by a dam in Ryerson Station State Park; it required the lake behind the dam to be drained.
Coal ash is currently recycled to produce a variety of products such as wallboard, bricks and high-strength concrete. Joe Manchin, West Virginia Governor, is concerned that the EPA might regulate power plant ash as a hazardous waste.
Environmentalists are upset over a deal between China Power International Development and Resourcehouse, an Australian coal producer, that will provide a 20 year supply of electric utility coal.
A story in The Guardian shares the experience of a homeowner who had a subsidence-related problem in 1989 and now faces problems – and high costs – to insure her home.
Russia has an estimated 87 trillion cubic meters of coal-bed methane distributed through coal seams in many parts of the country. Gasprom has a plan to produce 1.5 billion cubic meters of methane in 2012 from coal seams in Siberia. Gasprom is the largest extractor of natural gas in the world and the Russian government holds a controlling interest in the company.
The demand for coal could suffer significantly as climate change efforts look for cleaner energy production. Now some coal companies with significant mineral rights holdings are starting to consider going into the natural gas business.
The enormous Titanoboa snake probably ate crocodiles for breakfast, according to fossils from the Cerrejon coal mines of Colombia. The pits contain fossils of the ancient snake and Cerrejonisuchus improcerus, a newly-discovered, crocodile-like species that was around 2 meters in length.
Centralia, Pennsylvania is the site of an underground coal mine fire that has been burning since 1962, damaging most surface structures severely enough to warrant abandonment or condemnation. Now the State has ordered remaining residents out of their homes for demolition.
“Surface coal mining in the mountainous areas of Appalachia—often called “mountaintop mining”—generates controversy, in part because of its scale and the post-mining appearance of the land. Yet there is limited public access to information on the size, location, and life span of these operations, or on how the land can be expected to look afterward. GAO was asked to report on the characteristics of (1) surface coal mining and (2) reclaimed lands that were disturbed by surface coal mining in the mountainous, eastern part of Kentucky and in West Virginia, where most such mining occurs.”
“One proposed strategy to offset rising levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere is to capture carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel-burning power plants and pump them into the ocean depths.” Quoted from the WHOI press release.
The people of Xuan Wei, China, have a substantially higher risk of developing lung cancer than people living almost anywhere else in the world. Is this because of the coal burned for residential heating and cooking? The bituminous coal found here, under the Permian-Triassic boundary, is extraordinarily high in toxic silica.
Parking lots and driveways coated with a coal tar based product have been found to contain a high level of PAHs, or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. These contaminants, which are likely to be carcinogenic, can be tracked indoors and mix with house dust. On the other hand, asphalt-based sealants (more commonly used in the western U.S.) do not contain the same high concentrations of PAHs.
Interesting items from the EIA Short-Term Energy Outlook:
Non-OPEC oil supply increased by more than 0.6 million bbl/d in 2009. The United States, Brazil, and the Former Soviet Union were the largest contributors to this growth. Brazil will probably be the largest source of near-future growth with rising offshore and biofuels production.
United States liquid fuels consumption declined by 810,000 bbl/d, or 4.2 percent, in 2009, the second consecutive annual decline.
Coal used to produce electricity fell by nearly 10 percent in 2009 as many utilities switched to natural gas and electricity consumption dropped.
A group of scientists is asking the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to suspend new permits for mountaintop mining in the United States. Some of their concerns about mountaintop removal mining are water contamination, effects on organisms living downstream of valley fills, and human health in mining regions.
About 30 years ago there were concerns that sulfur emissions from coal would damage the atmosphere. So, legislation was passed that required the burning of low-sulfur coal – and that valuable resource was promptly mined-out. The better approach would have been to regulate goals such as “emission levels” so that fuel choice, combustion technology, sulfur sorbents or other innovations could have all been used to attack the problem.
Now greenhouse gases might be attacked by regulating what fuels can be used, instead of encouraging broad innovation.
“MineralWeb.com has developed a rich resource library for citizen mineral owners who are looking for plain spoken intelligence about their mineral rights.” Quoted from a MineralWeb press release.
Many people believe that the current administration is promoting renewable energy too aggressively and not giving proper attention to fossil fuels. An article at Reuters.com details how Ken Salazar, U.S. Interior Secretary, responded to this criticism.
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Hobart King
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