The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has a thoughtful article on Coal in the light of the recent mine disaster:
Mine tragedy a reminder of coal's role
When Rick Honaker was growing up in coal country, his grandmother would dispatch him to the backyard, pail in hand, to scoop up the shiny, black rocks that fed her stove. It was the only fuel in a home that had long sent its men to the mines.
Now, a generation later, the only time Honaker's own children have ever seen a lump of coal is when he brings one home. Honaker, who teaches mining engineering at the University of Kentucky, figures his kids need to see where they came from - and where we all may be going.
Until this past week's mining tragedy in West Virginia, coal was very much out of sight, out of mind - and, for many people, just as well forgotten.
But even as the tragic death of 12 men beneath the ground reminds the nation of its grimy coal-mining past, the ebony jewel they sought remains very much part of our present. Even if we don't know it.
A bit more -- some history and the present uses:
Meanwhile, the coal miner's union is a shadow of what it once was, when its bulldog of a leader challenged President Franklin D. Roosevelt for political power. And in cities like Pittsburgh, where factories long ago filled the sky with soot and smoke, the coal fires have been relegated to memory.
But if we don't see or feel or smell the power of coal any more, that does not mean we have left it behind.
More than half this country's electricity is supplied by coal. About 130 new coal-fired power plants are on the drawing boards for the next few years, and that could be just the beginning.
With the price of power sharply higher, the U.S. - long known as the Saudi Arabia of coal - is likely to be relying on it for generations to come.
Coal, its image notwithstanding, is not old-fashioned. It's just that most Americans have the luxury of ignoring it.
"The problem is, it's not burned by us directly. It's burned in power plants. And because of that we can live with the illusion that coal is the fuel of the past," says Barbara Freese, author of "Coal: A Human History," a book documenting the rock's role in industrialization.
50% of our electrical power and 130 more coal burning plants planned. To broaden our focus, how many deaths will be caused by the air pollution, accidents at rail crossings, mining casualties. How much CO2 are these plants pumping into the atmosphere. Nuclear is a very good option -- we have lots of ore (so does Canada) and although the waste is radioactive for a long time, the volume is very small -- a few pounds per day of operation as compared with tens of tons of toxic ash for a coal plant.
