Coal. Detestable coal. Politically incorrect coal.
The stuff of Dickens' England. Black-lung disease. Strip-mining. And global warming.
Coal is the 'Rodney Dangerfield of energy forms,' because, like the late comedian, it gets no respect.
Have you ever heard of a positive association regarding coal? As a child in the United States, way back in the twentieth century, you dared not misbehave prior to the holidays, lest you get, coal in your stocking.
(No one ever spoke of a reprimand involving 'getting oil in your stocking.' No sir. Oil is considered 'black gold.')
Well, in the near future you and many others may look favorably on collecting coal, and a lot of it, if current trends continue regarding that other notable energy form, oil.
That's because, despite more than twenty years of research pointing to a third oil shock coming that was not due to a peak in oil production (also called 'peak oil') but due to global supply increases not able to keep up with demand increases, the west (and in particular,the United States, which is the world's highest per capita user of oil) did very little to wean itself from it.
A U.S. energy policy miss-step
It didn't take a Ph.D. in quantum physics to foresee the above. Common sense argued that, logically, as large population centers in China and India and other developing markets embraced capitalism following the end of the Cold War, they would buy millions of cars and build thousands of factories, oil use would jump, and so would oil's price.
In the United States, the prudent preparation for this brave new world of oil would have been, at minimum, a national energy policy with increased fuel efficiency for cars/vehicles. Dozens of other tax incentive-based efficiency improvements could also have been introduced, but had the U.S. just increased car fuel efficiency, it would have been much better prepared for what's ahead.
And what is ahead? For one thing, a large increase in coal mining and usage, in all forms, The New York Times reported Thursday. The price of oil is literally reopening old, abandoned coal mines and rejuvenating decaying coal towns, because these coal zones can compete on price with oil again.
Dirty coal is a decidedly negative consequence, economist Glen Langan says, but if only it was the only one. Even more problematic for the west, and in particular for the United States, Langan says, is the current oil market reality: because the U.S. did not take control of its energy consumption during the past two decades, "the market will now regulate consumption, and it doesn't look like it's going to be pretty." Oil, Langan says, with every region of the world competing for the commodity to run its industrial base, "will now rise to the point of demand destruction, the price where individuals and companies start to use less of it."
And Langan's estimate for that demand destruction price for oil?
"Most likely it's about $200-$220 per barrel, but it could be closer to $250," Langan said.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-22-2008 @ 7:06PM
william lindblad said...
Before anyone gets too exuberant, remember that coal was out of favor for over 50 years. It has limited use in power generation as converting from natual gas back to coal would require major changes at any power plant and this could not be accomplished overnight. As a domestic heating source there are few coal fired furnaces left and even less in the manufacture thereof. On top of that the distribution system was mostly by rail and barge. All of this is long gone. Gasification might prove effective, but this would have to be built anew and also would take years. I am sure coal has a place but at present wind,solar and hydro are much cheaper and cleaner.
5-22-2008 @ 8:39PM
Kent said...
Finally, coal is drawing the attention it deserves toward energy independence. I've written to my two senators and congressman already over the last few weeks to at least give it a look. The U.S. has 25% of the known coal reserves in the world equivalent to 1 trillion barrels of oil. Pennsylvania and Montana are already funding an old German technology called, "Fisher-Tropische" technology that hydrogenates coal into liquid gasoline that was used during WWII, when they lost access to their Romanian refineries. We use 8 billion barrells of oil annually and potentially our coal reserves would sustain the U.S. for 125 years or so as opposed to 4 years if we relied on our known oil reserves of 29 billion barrels of oil. Forget pursuing ethanol; we don't have enough land to grow the corn to produce our energy requirements, let alone our food chain requirements.
5-22-2008 @ 10:41PM
Dave Raynor said...
I seem to recall something about making gasoline from coal, but the question is "will it be cost effective?"
What about adding finely powdered coal to the oil before it goes into the cracking towers? Wouldn't that increase the final product yield and decrease the amount of oil consumed?
Lets say for every two barrels of oil, one barrel of coal dust is added.. That means an instant cutback of 1/3rd on oil consumed for catalytic cracking..
As long as it works, then frankly I don't see a problem. Unless its going to drive up the cost of the final products by introducing a demand for another raw material.
-- Dave. Long Island, NY
5-23-2008 @ 6:18AM
al coholic said...
After a check with Google I have discovered, much to my surprise that coal currently provides nearly 50% of our electricity.
With our enormous coal reserves you would think our gratest minds could come up with a way to make it cleaner. Instead all we get is story after story about how scientist have improved solar cells and fuel cell membranes. You never see much about coal, yet it would seem to be a worthwhile endeavor to pursue cleaner and more efficient uses of such an abundant resource.
6-02-2008 @ 9:21AM
Peggy said...
Oil-rich American$ are 200% opposed to alternative fuels and continue to control the US market. Because this is true, there will be little or no effort to use solar/wind/other alternative power sources on the scale needed, and our oil-dependent country will continue to suffer. When the Oil dollared one$ control the market for alternative fuels, we will suddenly get them and continue to pay through the nose. What else is new?