A Costly, Deadly Obsession With Coal

[question everything]

Donald Trump’s efforts to revive coal mining have been criticized as picking winners. Actually, it’s more like picking losers: coal has become a sunset industry as cleaner energy sources rapidly get cheaper. If Mr. Trump succeeds at reversing the tide, it will come at a steep price, in both dollars and lives, most tragically for the coal miners he seeks to help.

Centuries ago, coal was a miracle material. Cleaner, safer and more efficient than wood, it made the Industrial Revolution, steam power and electrification possible. In much of the world it remains ridiculously plentiful and will be the power generation fuel of choice for years to come.

In the U.S., though, coal is headed toward obsolescence. Thanks to the fracking revolution, natural-gas-fueled power plants are now cheaper to build and operate than coal-fired plants. Solar- and wind-generated power now costs less per kilowatt-hour to produce than coal. Renewables cost slightly more than coal when you include the cost of backup power since the sun doesn’t always shine and wind doesn’t always blow, according to the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. But as innovation in shale gas, wind and solar continues to drive down costs, coal will lose whatever advantages it has now.

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Meanwhile, propping up uneconomical coal and nuclear plants would cost ratepayers a fortune. PJM Interconnection, which operates the wholesale electricity market serving 13 states and the District of Columbia, would bear $1.7 billion to $11 billion a year of added cost for coal-generated power and $1.4 billion to $22 billion for nuclear-generated power, according to PJM’s independent monitor.

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Finally, there is the cost to human life. Burning coal emits soot that even in tiny quantities causes cardiovascular and respiratory illness. In one study, Mr. Greenstone and his co-authors found that in China, which is currently negotiating to buy more U.S. coal, life expectancy is reduced by three years in households that use subsidized coal in the winter. The toll in the U.S., where emission standards are tougher, is much smaller, but still measurable. The miners themselves pay the highest price. Overexposure to coal mine dust leads to black lung disease—inflammation and scarring of the lungs, which eventually leads to organ damage and failure, and premature death.

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Lee Petsonk, a specialist in black lung disease at the West Virginia University School of Medicine, says the disease hits sooner, progresses faster, and is more lethal than 20 years ago; younger miners commonly lose 30 years of life to it. He thinks this is because new mining techniques cause miners to inhale more dust, and more toxic types of dust, such as silica from the surrounding rock. The disease is preventable with the right equipment and practices, and mining companies claim to meet tough federal dust-control standards, Dr. Petsonk says. But the dust-choked lungs he sees in autopsies suggest conditions are getting worse.

More..

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-costly-deadly-obsession-with-coal-1528282800 (paid subscription)

Write to Greg Ip at [e-mail]

[NNadir]

1. Regrettably for our country and the world however...

...The death of coal is vastly exaggerated. In the 21st century it has been the fastest growing source of energy, having grown by 60 exajoules per year out of the 587 exajoules per year humanity consumes each year to more than 150 exajoules per year.

The provincialism of Americans aside, this is an inconvenient truth. We are losing the war on fossil fuels because we're not even remotely serious about it either on the right or left.

[Hortensis]

2. Good article. It's more of a Trump obsession with cheering crowds,

though, and definitely a proven determination to erase everything Obama accomplished.

There is, of course, a right-wing hyperpartisan obsession with opposing Democrats. It's understandable that they want their old lifestyles back, so they could continue in their communities as before. Yet Appalachians voted against the Democratic plan to bring new industry. I doubt even a quarter of those who rejected a Democratically promised renaissance for their communities on the pretense of voting for a return of coal jobs believed that would happen. They've lived with what's been happening to their industry for decades and are experts on it.