Coal

Coal
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 183
Release: 2007-12-21
Genre: Science
ISBN: 030911022X

Coal will continue to provide a major portion of energy requirements in the United States for at least the next several decades. It is imperative that accurate information describing the amount, location, and quality of the coal resources and reserves be available to fulfill energy needs. It is also important that the United States extract its coal resources efficiently, safely, and in an environmentally responsible manner. A renewed focus on federal support for coal-related research, coordinated across agencies and with the active participation of the states and industrial sector, is a critical element for each of these requirements. Coal focuses on the research and development needs and priorities in the areas of coal resource and reserve assessments, coal mining and processing, transportation of coal and coal products, and coal utilization.

Hidden Costs of Energy

Hidden Costs of Energy
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 506
Release: 2010-05-26
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309155800

Despite the many benefits of energy, most of which are reflected in energy market prices, the production, distribution, and use of energy causes negative effects. Many of these negative effects are not reflected in energy market prices. When market failures like this occur, there may be a case for government interventions in the form of regulations, taxes, fees, tradable permits, or other instruments that will motivate recognition of these external or hidden costs. The Hidden Costs of Energy defines and evaluates key external costs and benefits that are associated with the production, distribution, and use of energy, but are not reflected in market prices. The damage estimates presented are substantial and reflect damages from air pollution associated with electricity generation, motor vehicle transportation, and heat generation. The book also considers other effects not quantified in dollar amounts, such as damages from climate change, effects of some air pollutants such as mercury, and risks to national security. While not a comprehensive guide to policy, this analysis indicates that major initiatives to further reduce other emissions, improve energy efficiency, or shift to a cleaner electricity generating mix could substantially reduce the damages of external effects. A first step in minimizing the adverse consequences of new energy technologies is to better understand these external effects and damages. The Hidden Costs of Energy will therefore be a vital informational tool for government policy makers, scientists, and economists in even the earliest stages of research and development on energy technologies.

The Global Coal Market

The Global Coal Market
Author: Mark C. Thurber
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 723
Release: 2015-07-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107092426

A major study of the modern global coal market and its impacts both on energy markets and on climate policy.

Soft Coal, Hard Choices

Soft Coal, Hard Choices
Author: Price V. Fishback
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 292
Release: 1992-05-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0195361938

While most studies of labor in the coal industry focus on the struggle to organize unions, this work offers a more diverse and quantitative examination of the labor market. It regards the economic lives of the bituminous coal miners in the early twentieth century. Fishback's analytic framework encompasses competition among employers for labor, the legal environment, institutional development in response to transactions costs as well as the impact of labor unions on the coal industry. Utilizing economic theory and statistics, Fishback reveals the models hidden in the descriptions of events, and then tests their internal consistency as well as the hypotheses they generate.

Evolutionary and Revolutionary Technologies for Mining

Evolutionary and Revolutionary Technologies for Mining
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 102
Release: 2002-03-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309169836

The Office of Industrial Technologies (OIT) of the U. S. Department of Energy commissioned the National Research Council (NRC) to undertake a study on required technologies for the Mining Industries of the Future Program to complement information provided to the program by the National Mining Association. Subsequently, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health also became a sponsor of this study, and the Statement of Task was expanded to include health and safety. The overall objectives of this study are: (a) to review available information on the U.S. mining industry; (b) to identify critical research and development needs related to the exploration, mining, and processing of coal, minerals, and metals; and (c) to examine the federal contribution to research and development in mining processes.

The Value of Commercial Marine Shipping to Canada

The Value of Commercial Marine Shipping to Canada
Author: Council of Canadian Academies. Expert Panel on the Social and Economic Value of Marine Shipping in Canada
Publisher:
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2017-05
Genre: Shipping
ISBN: 9781926522265

"The high standard of living that Canadians enjoy is dependent, in part, on Canada's involvement in global trade. About one third of exports and over a quarter of imports by value are transported by water. Shipping is vital to the competitiveness of Canadian commodity exports and is a lynchpin in many Canadian supply chains. In addition to its economic value, shipping is also critical to coastal community survival and food security in the Arctic, as it is often the only source of food and other supplies for Canada's most northern communities. Current trends in technology, climate change, emerging markets, and other factors, however, may influence the value of commercial marine shipping in the future. This assessment will explore the extent of both economic and social value of shipping on Canada and its regions while also looking at how shipping trends now underway might affect Canadian marine shipping activity in the future. Question What is the social and economic value of commercial marine shipping to Canada and its regions? How will global trends related to shipping affect future shipping activity in Canada?--

Coal

Coal
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 1995-06-13
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309052327

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) was given a mandate in the 1992 Energy Policy Act (EPACT) to pursue strategies in coal technology that promote a more competitive economy, a cleaner environment, and increased energy security. Coal evaluates DOE's performance and recommends priorities in updating its coal program and responding to EPACT. This volume provides a picture of likely future coal use and associated technology requirements through the year 2040. Based on near-, mid-, and long-term scenarios, the committee presents a framework for DOE to use in identifying R&D strategies and in making detailed assessments of specific programs. Coal offers an overview of coal-related programs and recent budget trends and explores principal issues in future U.S. and foreign coal use. The volume evaluates DOE Fossil Energy R&D programs in such key areas as electric power generation and conversion of coal to clean fuels. Coal will be important to energy policymakers, executives in the power industry and related trade associations, environmental organizations, and researchers.

Beyond the Coal Rush

Beyond the Coal Rush
Author: James Goodman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2020-11-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1108479820

Climate change makes fossil fuels unburnable, but how can the world stop mining coal - the worst source of greenhouse gas emissions?

Handbook of Public Economics

Handbook of Public Economics
Author: Martin Feldstein
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 744
Release: 2002-01-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0080544193

The Field of Public Economics has been changing rapidly in recent years, and the sixteen chapters contained in this Handbook survey many of the new developments. As a field, Public Economics is defined by its objectives rather than its techniques and much of what is new is the application of modern methods of economic theory and econometrics to problems that have been addressed by economists for over two hundred years. More generally, the discussion of public finance issues also involves elements of political science, finance and philosophy. These connections are evidence in several of the chapters that follow. Public Economics is the positive and normative study of government's effect on the economy. We attempt to explain why government behaves as it does, how its behavior influences the behavior of private firms and households, and what the welfare effects of such changes in behavior are. Following Musgrave (1959) one may imagine three purposes for government intervention in the economy: allocation, when market failure causes the private outcome to be Pareto inefficient, distribution, when the private market outcome leaves some individuals with unacceptably low shares in the fruits of the economy, and stabilization, when the private market outcome leaves some of the economy's resources underutilized. The recent trend in economic research has tended to emphasize the character of stabilization problems as problems of allocation in the labor market. The effects that government intervention can have on the allocation and distribution of an economy's resources are described in terms of efficiency and incidence effects. These are the primary measures used to evaluate the welfare effects of government policy.