Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
tograph on local “Wanted” posters, labeled “Job Hater.” Her daughter's
dog was shot. Friends heard rumors that Gunnoe too would be shot and
her home burned with her children inside. Some nights she stays awake
as a protective measure. She refuses to relocate. She feels she is right and
refuses to give in.
During a supportive visit to a proposed mountaintop removal site,
climate expert James Hansen said, “I am not a politician; I am a scientist
and a citizen. . . . Politicians may have to advocate for halfway measures
if they choose. But it is our responsibility to make sure our representa-
tives feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not what
is politically expedient. Mountaintop removal, providing only a small
fraction of our energy, should be abolished.”
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President Obama has
chosen not to follow Hansen's advice and has approved forty-two of
forty-nine planned removals of mountaintops by coal companies.
Subsurface Mining
Underground coal mining in the early part of the
twentieth century was very dangerous because of inadequate mine safety
requirements (mine collapses, rock falls, gas explosions) and the health
hazard known as black lung disease, in which coal dust penetrates deep
into the miner's lungs, eventually causing emphysema, cancer, and often
death. Coal mines today are required by law to be much safer, ventilated,
and are heavily automated. But coal mining remains a dangerous occupa-
tion, and there are several dozen deaths each year.
Coal Rank
The abundance of domestic coal is not totally meaningful without con-
sideration of its rank; higher ranks of coal generate more heat per
volume. The rank of coal is its position in the series lignite, subbitumi-
nous coal, bituminous coal, and anthracite coal. America's reserves are
7 percent lignite (4,000-8,300 BTUs per pound), 46 percent subbitumi-
nous coal (8,300-13,000 BTUs per pound), 47 percent bituminous coal
(10,000-15,500 BTUs per pound), and only a trace of anthracite coal
(less than15,000 BTUs per pound).
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Production of each rank is about
the same as its relative volume.
Western coal is of lower rank than eastern coal, and is therefore a less
effective source of energy than eastern coal. Wyoming coal is mostly
lignite and subbituminous and has, on average, only 8,600 BTUs of
energy per pound. Eastern coal is mostly bituminous and generates over
12,000 BTUs per pound, meaning that power plants need to burn 50
percent more western coal to match the power output from eastern coal.
