Coal - Energy Policy Analysis: A Conceptual Framework - page 35

Figure 2.4 The Costs of Utilizing Coal Technologies

$

Environmental
costs

Dollar
costs

National security
costs

portion could easily have been produced in the United States, which has substantial additional
production capacity. Coal exports were 81.7 million tons in 2010, mostly to Europe and Canada
(USEIA 2011e, Table 4). Because most coal used in the United States is produced at dispersed
locations within the United States, it would be unimaginably difficult for any terrorist organization
or foreign government to cut off or significantly reduce supplies of this fuel for utilization within
the country. The prospect of such actions would encourage greater stockpiling of coal than is cur-
rently typical, at acceptable cost to most users. Seasonal stockpiling of substantial quantities of
coal is common practice today, and stockpiling by electric utilities and others increases noticeably
during labor negotiations with coal miners.
However, combustion of fossil fuels is the greatest source of carbon emissions in the United
States contributing to global climate change. Of 5,937 million metric tons of greenhouse gas
emissions in the United States in 2010, fossil fuels contributed 5,633 million metric tons (94.9
percent), of which coal contributed 1,985 million metric tons, or about 33.4 percent of the total
(USEIA 2011b, Table 11.2).
To the extent that other nations may be concerned about or affected by climate change and
perceive those effects to be caused in large part by the United States, our relationships with some
countries may in the future be adversely affected by utilization of such large quantities of coal,
so it cannot be said that the national security costs of coal utilization are nil. There are some na-
tional security costs of utilizing coal, but their significance for U.S. energy policy is determined
by which countries are affected, how much, and whether we care about their concerns. At the
current time, the national security costs of utilizing this resource are mistakenly considered by
many analysts to be low, but they may be expected to increase in the future, as different countries