A Bold Step Backward? Coal in the 21st Century
By Patrick Tucker
Technology is making a dirty fuel look new.
With so much talk about hydrogen solar, wind, and other alternative fuels, few people
realize that the world's principal source of household energy remains the same as it was
during the nineteenth century: coal. As the developing global economy hungers for more
electricity, and as countries like the United States put greater emphasis on energy
independence, the world's use of coal will only increase in the years ahead (around 1.5%
per year, according to the World Coal Institute). If that increase isn't managed properly,
the effects could be disastrous.
"The United States is more dependent on coal today than ever before. The average
American consumes about 20 pounds of it a day. We don't use it to warm our hearths
anymore, but we burn it by wire whenever we flip on the light switch or charge up our
laptops," writes veteran journalist Jeff Goodell in his book, Big Coal: The Dirty
Secret Behind America's Energy Future (Houghton Mifflin, 2006).
According to the World Coal Institute, 39% of the world's electricity comes from coal,
and electricity use is on the rise. Goodell points out that U.S. coal consumption rose to
more than a billion tons in 2005, an increase of 1.9% over 2004 when revenues for the
industry stood at $260 billion. (By way of comparison, the rebuilding costs from Hurricane
Katrina are estimated at $200 billion.) Goodell sees increased use of energy-hungry
computers and other high-tech gadgets as the key force driving energy (thus coal)
consumption in the United States. "We may not like to admit it, but our shiny white
iPod economy is propped up by dirty black rocks," he writes.
The expanding high-tech gadget market is only one factor in the rise of coal usage
worldwide. The Chinese economic boom is also fueled largely by this highly polluting but
abundant fuel. The ill effects of that boom are making themselves known. Poor air quality
is already creating health and agricultural problems throughout the region. In China and
South Korea, roughly 355,000 people a year die from the effects of urban outdoor air
pollution, according to the World Health Organization. Coal burning is also a leading
source of mercury pollution and, of course, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
Ironically, global warming, to which coal consumption is a major contributor, is itself
a driver of coal use. In his book, Goodell relates a conversation he had with a Chinese
man in a recently drought-plagued province: "'People are very concerned about [global
warming]. Seven or eight years ago, no one needed an air conditioner in Ürümqui. Now it
is necessary. It is of course expensive, and it means burning more coal to create the
electricity to power those air conditioners. It is a difficult situation. More power, more
pollution, more power." Goodell refers to this circular phenomenon of
higher-temperatures and greater coal use as the greenhouse spiral.
One of the most effective and practical solutions to the energy dilemma, according to
Goodell, would be for coal-burning countries such as China and the United States to
mandate that all new coal-powered plants use integrated gasification combined cycle, or
IGCC, technology. Regular coal plants simply burn coal and release most of the pollution
into the atmosphere, while IGCC plants convert the coal into a synthetic gas to burn in a
turbine. Unlike other supposedly "clean coal" initiatives, IGCC, in combination
with new technologies like scrubbers, could make coal virtually emissions free.
IGCC plants "are 10% more efficient than conventional coal plants, consume 40%
less water, produce half as much ash and solid waste, and are nearly as clean burning as
natural gas plants. But more important, it is far easier and cheaper to capture CO2 from
coal at an IGCC plant than at a conventional coal plant," Goodell writes.
He estimates that, on a straight cost basis, an IGCC plant is 10% to 20% more expensive
to build than a conventional plant, but added efficiency (and perhaps taxpayer subsidies)
could mitigate most of those costs. To make IGCC the industry standard, Goodell recommends
legislation to limit CO2 emissions from coal plants, with tax subsidies acting as positive
reinforcement for the industry to develop IGCC facilities.
When it comes to other nations with different infrastructure needs, Goodell sees a
separate set of solutions coming into play. For instance, in the case of China, more
free-market competition and good regulations could help the nation bankroll cleaner energy
initiatives. According to one Chinese dissident he spoke with, "I believe if anything
is going to save China from an environmental catastrophe, it's capitalism."
While governments and the free market can play important roles in the public's response
to coal pollution, Goodell reminds readers that it's up to them to examine their own
consumption habits and demand better, both of industry and of themselves.
"We have to educate ourselves about the price of power and realize that there is
nothing natural about the monopoly that the electric power companies--and by extension Big
Coal--have over our lives," he writes.
The cost of implementing these and other proposals may seem high, but the price of not
acting on coal pollution, particularly as we use more of it, may be far greater. In
addition to the already high human costs from air pollution are the economic dangers posed
by global warming--which threatens to drive up the price of disaster insurance and which
may create drought conditions in the world's most economically vulnerable countries. On
the surface, the problem is nothing if not daunting: The human race needs more energy to
fuel development, but the only fuel abundant enough to meet our growing needs is
poisonous, both for humans and for the climate.
Despite these challenges, Goodell sees cause for optimism: "The most valuable fuel
for the future is not coal or oil, but imagination and ingenuity. We have reinvented our
world before. Why can't we do it again?"
Just as our attitude toward coal runs both hot and cold, so future generations will
surely question our continued reliance on a patently obsolete source of energy. After all,
the mixed legacy of coal--progress, pollution, industrial capacity, and smog-filled
skies--is our legacy as well.
In the end, the best we can hope for is that our posterity regards our infatuation with
coal as a necessary phase, rather than as a disaster in the making.
Source: Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind
America's Energy Future by Jeff Goodell. Houghton Mifflin. 2006. 336 pages.
$25.95.
To order the print edition of the September-October
2006 issue of THE FUTURIST ($4.95 plus $3 postage and handling) or to become a member of the World
Future Society ($49 per year).
