U.S. Coal

U.S. Coal
Author: Marc Humphries
Publisher: Nova Publishers
Total Pages: 72
Release: 2004
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781594540479

The US coal industry has gone through a number of gradual shifts in recent decades. The industry has become more concentrated, and mine productivity has improved. More low-sulphur coal and less high sulphur coal is today being produced. Less coal is exported, in part because of a strong US dollar. Improved production methods, such as greater utilisation of and improvements in longwall mining technology, have lowered the cost of underground mining, although surface mining continues to hold a substantial cost advantage. The United States is well endowed with coal. The total demonstrated resource base is estimated by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) at 508 billion short tons, of which about 274 billion short tons are classified as recoverable reserves. US recoverable reserves are estimated at 25% of total world reserves. Production of US coal reached an all-time high in 2001 at 1,121 million short tons. Coal supplies 22% of the nation's energy demand but 52% of its electricity needs. EIA forecasts coal to fall to 47% of the US electricity market by 2025 because of increased competition from natural gas. About 1,063 million short tons of coal were consumed in the United States in 2001, 90% of which was used in the electric power sector. Currently, railroads move about 65% of all coal, barges transport about 15%, and trucks about 11%. The outlook for US coal is mixed. While forecasts predict steady growth in coal supply and demand, the increased production is expected to come from fewer, larger mines and fewer producers. Continued competition from natural gas is likely to put pressure on coal prices for the foreseeable future.

Coal Wars

Coal Wars
Author: Richard Martin
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2015-04-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1466879246

Since the late 18th century, when it emerged as a source of heating and, later, steam power, coal has brought untold benefits to mankind. Even today, coal generates almost 45 percent of the world's power. Our modern technological society would be inconceivable without coal and the energy it provides. Unfortunately, that society will not survive unless we wean ourselves off coal. The largest single source of greenhouse gases, coal is responsible for 43 percent of the world's carbon emissions. Richard Martin, author of SuperFuel, argues that to limit catastrophic climate change, we must find a way to power our world with less polluting energy sources, and we must do it in the next couple of decades—or else it is "game over." It won't be easy: as coal plants shut down across the United States, and much of Europe turns to natural gas, coal use is growing in the booming economies of Asia— particularly China and India. Even in Germany, where nuclear power stations are being phased out in the wake of the Fukushima accident, coal use is growing. Led by the Sierra Club and its ambitious "Beyond Coal" campaign, environmentalists hope to drastically reduce our dependence on coal in the next decade. But doing so will require an unprecedented contraction of an established, lucrative, and politically influential worldwide industry. Big Coal will not go gently. And its decline will dramatically change lives everywhere—from Appalachian coal miners and coal company executives to activists in China's nascent environmental movement. Based on a series of journeys into the heart of coal land, from Wyoming to West Virginia to China's remote Shanxi Province, hundreds of interviews with people involved in, or affected by, the effort to shrink the industry, and deep research into the science, technology, and economics of the coal industry, Coal Wars chronicles the dramatic stories behind coal's big shutdown—and the industry's desperate attempts to remain a global behemoth. A tour de force of literary journalism, Coal Wars will be a milestone in the climate change battle.

Killing for Coal

Killing for Coal
Author: Thomas G. Andrews
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2010-09-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674736680

On a spring morning in 1914, in the stark foothills of southern Colorado, members of the United Mine Workers of America clashed with guards employed by the Rockefeller family, and a state militia beholden to Colorado’s industrial barons. When the dust settled, nineteen men, women, and children among the miners’ families lay dead. The strikers had killed at least thirty men, destroyed six mines, and laid waste to two company towns. Killing for Coal offers a bold and original perspective on the 1914 Ludlow Massacre and the “Great Coalfield War.” In a sweeping story of transformation that begins in the coal beds and culminates with the deadliest strike in American history, Thomas Andrews illuminates the causes and consequences of the militancy that erupted in colliers’ strikes over the course of nearly half a century. He reveals a complex world shaped by the connected forces of land, labor, corporate industrialization, and workers’ resistance. Brilliantly conceived and written, this book takes the organic world as its starting point. The resulting elucidation of the coalfield wars goes far beyond traditional labor history. Considering issues of social and environmental justice in the context of an economy dependent on fossil fuel, Andrews makes a powerful case for rethinking the relationships that unite and divide workers, consumers, capitalists, and the natural world.

Big Coal

Big Coal
Author: Jeff Goodell
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2007-04-03
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0547526628

New York Times–Bestselling Author:“Should be ready by anyone who owns a microwave, or an iPod, or a table lamp, which is to say everyone.” —Elizabeth Kolbert, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sixth Extinction A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year Coal is still a significant source of power in the United States—and coal mining is still a deadly and environmentally destructive industry. Much of the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere each year comes from coal-fired power plants, and in recent decades air pollution from coal plants has killed more than half a million Americans. In this eye-opening call to action, Jeff Goodell explains the costs and consequences of America’s addiction to coal and discusses how we can kick the habit. “[A] compelling indictment . . . powerful.” —The New York Times Book Review “Goodell’s description of the mining-related deaths, the widespread health consequences of burning coal and the impact on our planet’s increasingly fragile ecosystem make for compelling reading, but . . . are not what lift this book out of the ordinary. That distinction belongs to Goodell’s fieldwork, which takes him to Atlanta, West Virginia, Wyoming, China and beyond.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Goodell does a first-rate job of balancing environmental concerns with interviews from the human faces associated with ‘Big Coal’.” —Library Journal

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.

The American Coal Industry 1790-1902, Volume III

The American Coal Industry 1790-1902, Volume III
Author: Sean Patrick Adams
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2024-08-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1040251331

The emergence of coal-based fuel economy over the course of the nineteenth century was one of the most significant contributions the America’s Industrial Revolution, but the transition from wood to mineral energy sources was a gradual one that transpired over a number of decades. The documents in these volumes recreate the institutional history of the American coal industry in the nineteenth century; in doing so they provide a first-hand perspective on the developments in regard to political economy, business structure and competition, the rise of formal trade unions, and the creation of a national coal trade. Although the collection strives to be wide-ranging in region and theme, the Pennsylvania anthracite coal trade forms the thematic backbone as it became the most important American mineral resource to see successful development throughout the nineteenth century and consequently saw unprecedented levels of intervention by the federal government. The texts for this collection were selected for their accessibility to modern readers as well as their relationship to a series of common themes across the nineteenth century American coal industry — with headnotes and annotations provided to explain their context and the reasons for their inclusion.The third volume in this set traces the three decades following the American Civil War, during which time the use of coal for manufacturing, locomotives and domestic heating helped build a dynamic industrial economy in the United States. Mineral fuel growth powered the growth of the nation and by 1885 coal became the single most important source of American energy. Coal mining spread to nearly every corner of the nation in the half-century following the civil war. By the time of the Great Anthracite Strike in 1902, the American coal industry was a truly national phenomenon. The rise of large and well-funded mining and railroad corporations, the national unions, and the inroads by state governments into mine safety

Coal Development in Rural America

Coal Development in Rural America
Author: Wallace McMartin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 96
Release: 1981
Genre: Coal
ISBN:

Glossary -- Introduction -- Coal -- Reclamation of mined land -- The land resource -- Water -- Human resources -- Implications -- Bibliography -- Appendix tables.