Coal remains important to Kentucky, nation
October 25, 2009 by Opinions · 7 Comments
Column by Steven Gardner
Kentucky has deep roots in mining and coal. Coal is a part of Kentucky’s heritage and a part of Kentucky’s future. UK was originally the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, established as part of Kentucky University, of which mining was an integral foundation.
Today, UK is leading the country in many areas of coal-related research including environmental restoration, safer and more efficient mining systems, coal resources, reforestation, and cleaner utilization, just to name a few.
At the recent Kentucky Governor’s Conference on the Environment, Gov. Steve Beshear made the statement that Kentucky is a Coal State and this is a Coal Nation. Barbara Freese in her book, “Coal – A Human History†made the observation that, “… the United States … where Coal transformed a virtual wilderness into an industrial super power with astonishing speed.â€
Vice Admiral John Grossenbacher (Ret.), director of the Idaho National Laboratory spoke at the Governor’s Conference and made the observation that while nuclear power could safely supply the country with electricity, it will take decades to ramp up to meet our needs and in the meantime, coal will still have to supply a large part of our energy needs.
Dan E. Arvizu, director of National Renewable Energy Laboratory, who also spoke at the Governor’s Conference, observed that while we will be able to supply significant amounts of energy from renewable sources in the future, coal will still be necessary for decades to come.
I am the first to admit that mining of coal has caused problems in the past. However, the debate over mountaintop mining rages with misinformation and inaccuracy from many. Mining methods and land restoration have improved over the decades. Land and ecosystems are restored, in large part due to many of the research efforts at UK.
I would suggest listening to those experts to learn the facts instead of the fiction offered by others. We are learning more continuously. Environmental performance in air and water has improved tremendously. The restored land of former mine sites in East Kentucky is among some of the most valuable land there. Lt. Gov. Mongiardo and House Speaker Greg Stumbo both live on former mine sites and Dr. Mongiardo has practiced medicine in a hospital on a former mine site.
Coach John Calipari recently participated in the official ribbon cutting for Alliance Coal’s new $300 million river view underground mining complex in Western Kentucky. I believe Coach Cal sums it up pretty well in the following excerpt from his official Sept. 19 blog, titled A Miner’s Attitude, â€It was a bit emotional knowing my Grandpa John (not to mention his brother) had spent hours upon hours down under as a West Virginia coal mine (in Clarksburg). But I know how much better the conditions are now for the miners — even if the work is still just as grueling. But make no mistake — it’s dark down there and you can feel the bond amongst the miners from the moment you get on the property. Talk about a team? There are no better teammates than coal miners.â€
The new Wildcat Coal Lodge can be a showcase for energy efficiency in new building construction, while honoring a significant part of Kentucky’s heritage and future for decades to come.
Do we need to find alternative sources of energy? Yes. Coal is a finite resource. Many argue over exactly how much coal is left 200 years, 100 years, 50 years. The exact figure depends on us and our energy consumption.
An inconvenient reality is this country and world will still need coal for a variety of uses in the future, not just energy, but as a resource to produce many of the products we all use in everyday life.
Steven Gardner is the President/CEO of Engineering Consulting Services, Inc. (ECSI) and chairman of the UK’s Mining Engineering Foundation. E-mail opinions@kykernel.com.
So if this is great and charitable think with altruistic purposes; then why build something that is less visible to the greater public but more useful in enhancing our community? Such as a new Student Medical Center or a better Counseling and testing building. For that part, the Mathskeller is both underground and could use an overhaul.
I tend to be more moderate in this debate, I see both sides. (Although I do favor the anti-coal folks as a general rule.) I wouldn’t want the building being call the Kentuckians For the Commonwealth Lounge either.
It’s a blatantly political move and it belongs somewhere else.
Thanks for respectively presenting the other side.
You can learn more about Idaho National Laboratory’s research projects at http://www.facebook.com/idahonationallaboratory
I read with great interest Steven Gardner’s articule. It sounds like a poem, not common sense. If the Coal Industry was really concerned about jobs and the future of the Commonwealth, they would practice deep mining of coal, like was done for generations. This way more miners would have jobs and the land and water would not be disturbed for future generations. But unfortunately, the out of state coal companies do not care about either of the miners, the land or the people, only profit for wall street. The fact is that there are 75 percent fewer coal miners in Martin County, KY today than there was in 1980 and more Coal is taken from the Martin County today than in 1980. If coal was so wonderful and such an great commody to bring so much wealth, why is Appalachia, where it is dug, some of the poorest counties and poor school systems in the nation? Oh yea, I forgot about the out of state companies! As for the need for flat land, only 2.8 percent of flattened mountains have any buidings at all on them. As for Mr. Gardner’s assertion that egosytems are restored. That is just grossly wrong. I assume Mr. Gardner would be OK with his 4 year old daughter drinking water with ascenic in it and having her bathe in it also, like a young woman I met from Floyd County. Would never happen in Louisville or Lexington would it. Everyone in the state knows that is true. Why is it allowed here.
Somethings are not worth having if you have to be dirty to get them. I hope that UK will be a leader, not a follower. I hope they will surprise me, but I am not going to hold my breathe.
Does the Univesity of Kentucky want to go down the road of naming every building after some Industry who wants to throw money at it? Does the University stand for anything anymore, or has UK gone downhill as far as politics, just gorged with the money? We could raise money and rename the following:
1- Makers Mark- Commonwealth Stadium—we do have a bourbon heritage in Kentucky.
2- Keeneland Track-Rupp Arena—obviously we have a horse heritage in Kentucky.
Sure money is important, but not being a sale out teaches kids much more about life. You must stand for something of fall for anything. Coal should use the 7 million dollars to mine coal the old fashioned way, with workers, not machines. This way, more miners would have work, not fewer miners. There is a reason that unemployment is much much higher in Eastern Kentucky than the rest of the state. Blame it on the coal companies who use machines not men.
We need more deep mining? Has everyone forgotten the Crandal Canyon, Darby Creek, Sago, and other such disasters? Why would you want to put even more miners in those situations? So you can keep using electicity while you bash its source?
Pimentel is convinced, based on his research that when all fourteen types of energy inputs are included in the production of biofuels — especially ethanol from corn — that there is a net energy loss, not a gain, however modest, as others contend. He sees ethanol production as “relatively energy intensive.”
Pimentel is just a pessimistic about wood waste and switch grass, neither of which he contends are positive energy producers when compared to oil and gas.
The term “Renewable Energy†is commonly used these days and everybody seems to have a pretty good idea what it means or stands for. Instant associations of this term include solar power, wind power, hydroelectricity and perhaps biomass and biofuels. Renewable Energy is heralded as the saviour of our planet for a power hungry civilization who is currently burning fossil fuels to meet an ever increasing power demand. But is it true that we could go about business as usual, continue on the same road of ever increasing energy demand, if only we switched to 100% Renewable Energy? To answer this question, let’s go back to the basics of physics: consider, energy cannot be produced, generated, recycled or renewed. It can only be converted (from one state into another). However, every time we perform a conversion, it comes at a cost called entropy, which is a loss of useful or available energy. In thermodynamics, energy is made up of two components: entropy and enthalpy. Entropy is diffuse heat energy, many times associated with waste heat from mechanical or chemical processes and represents – to the largest extent – the useless component of energy that is unavailable to carry out work. Entropy is also associated with the level of disorder in a system. Enthalpy on the other side is the useful (non-diffuse) energy component that we can readily use to carry out work. Thermodynamics teach us that every time we use enthalpic energy (eg change it from a state of stored chemical energy into mechanical work) the total entropy of the system in which it occurs (our planet) increases. The larger the energy potentia, the larger is the amount of useful work we get from it. And here we are at the core of the problem: the entropy of a system (heat and disorder) increases over time as enthalpic energy is spent. This process is irreversible and forever reduces the usability of useful energy that remains. For this reason, fundamentally and despite popular believe, there is no such thing as “Renewable Energyâ€. Out of all sustainable energy initiatives available, the drastic reduction of our energy demand, also know as “demand side abatement†is the single most important one. If we continue to increase our energy consumption, even if we use “renewable†sources exclusively, we will necessarily also continue to increase the entropy, waste heat and resulting temperature in our planet’s atmosphere. Before we started burning fossil fuels, our planet was in good balance between the sun’s radiation absorbed and the heat earth re-radiated into space. This balance depends on many factors, including the gas composition of the atmosphere and cloud cover, however their individual roles and interdependencies in context with radiation absorbed and re-radiated are complex and still poorly understood. As we are running out of time to fix the problems associated with climate change, we cannot afford to take new chances and make assumptions about the safe and abundant use of “renewable†energies. Instead, we should take the more conservative view that we live on a planet with limited, finite resources, the use of which produces an ever increasing entropy. Since this process is irreversible, the best strategy for us is to reduce our energy consumption and thereby extend our lease.
Cornell professor Dr. David Pimentel’s address to the Sustainable Energy Forum’s 2006 Peak Oil and Environment conference.