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But can they find common ground? Is there a middle way that protects the environment, and still allows the mining and burning of coal?
That was the topic of a special forum in Charleston yesterday called “Coal: Energy, the Environment and West Virginia.”
WV Public Broadcasting
From climate change to mountaintop removal, environmentalists and coal producers are usually at each other’s throats.
But can they find common ground? Is there a middle way that protects the environment, and still allows the mining and burning of coal?
That was the topic of a special forum in Charleston yesterday called “Coal: Energy, the Environment and West Virginia.”
For the coal industry in WV, it’s the best of times, and it’s the worst of times. On one hand, coal prices are at historic highs. Developing countries like China and India are devouring coal at record rates, with no sign of stopping anytime soon.
You’d think coal officials would be deliriously happy, but they’re not. You can blame Al Gore and an Inconvenient Truth, or a massive and growing body of scientific evidence about climate change, but members of the coal industry feel like they’re under attack.
Charleston lawyer Tom Heywood laid out the challenge to participants in the coal forum.
“The challenge for West Virginia, the challenge for coal producing states and nations, is that as historically produced, coal is a dirty fuel and is regarded as a dirty fuel,” Heywood said. “And there are environmental issues associated with the production and consumption of coal.”
Heywood addressed about 100 participants at the event, sponsored by a group called The Coal Forum, which is largely supported by coal producers, and Marshall University.
Heywood served as chief of staff for former Gov. Gaston Caperton, and is part of another group called Imagine West Virginia, which issued a report earlier this year that tries to bridge the gap between coal producers and environmentalists.
Instead of a threat, he said the new emphasis on the environment could be a boon for WV and for Appalachia – if leaders can work together and invest in research and higher education.
“If you want to do energy well, in an environmentally sound fashion, go to West Virginia, go to Appalachia,” he said. “We all win in that equation. That’s our great opportunity.”
But if coal producers have to take the environment more seriously, Heywood says environmentalists have to admit the need for coal.
“The physically reality is that we cannot bridge to the future for decades if not hundreds of years without coal as part of the equation,” Heywood said. “If you accept that premise, then your choices are, how do we do coal well, how do we do coal clean, how do we capture the opportunities for coal.”
But Allan Tweddle, a consultant and member of the WV Public Energy Authority, does not accept that premise.
Clean coal depends on something called carbon sequestration – capturing the greenhouse gases created when power plants burn coal and storing them underground. Tweddle can tick off a long list of problems and shortcomings of carbon sequestration.
“Carbon sequestration is going to double the cost of coal fired power,” Tweddle said. “One of the coal presidents said it is at least 15, maybe 20 years away from being commercially viable.
“There are a myriad of legal issues that are unresolved. Who’s going to take the liability if it comes back out of the ground. And the energy it takes. I’ve heard estimates it could take 15 or 20% of the power of the power plant makes to strip out the CO2. That’s going to raise the cost of electricity,” he said.
Chris Hamilton, senior vice president of the WV Coal Association, says he’s concerned about a growing movement to reduce or abolish the use of coal.
“I’m not sure that we can really appease the individuals that want to see coal eliminated, abolished from the energy mix of this country,” Hamilton said.
“But those individuals and groups that have concerns about the environment or the impacts of mining, certainly we can be more responsive to those concerns,” Hamilton added.
Gov. Joe Manchin spoke about a new coal-to-liquids plant announced last month for Marshall County. Coal-to-liquids can produce twice as much greenhouse gases as traditional gasoline, but company officials promise to use carbon sequestration to reduce that.
Cong. Shelley Moore Capito also spoke at the forum. She is proposing more federal money for clean coal research. But Congress is deadlocked over energy policy – something Capito blames on the Democratic leadership.
“Right now, we don’t have a comprehensive bill out there,” Capito said. “We haven’t been allowed to vote on anything that I think is going to address high gasoline prices and dependence on foreign oil. And any time we do get something, it’s a fight to get anything related to coal in there.”
Of course, Capito’s Democratic opponent, Anne Barth, blames Capito and other Republicans for the lack of a comprehensive energy bill, as she says in a new campaign ad.
More forums on coal and the environment are being planned for Morgantown, Logan and other towns across the state.