Experts Do Not See Alternative Energy Sources Replacing Coal Anytime Soon

Experts Do Not See Alternative Energy Sources Replacing Coal Anytime Soon

By Paul J. Nyden, The Charleston Gazette, W.Va. -- June 15

Coal releases pollutants into our atmosphere and waters. Mining destroys forests and mountains.

But with a constantly increasing demand for electric power -- in this country and the world -- what are the alternatives?

Today, coal generates 99 percent of the electricity produced in West Virginia and slightly more than 50 percent of the electricity produced in the United States.

Coal-generated electricity is cheap. West Virginians pay a nickel for each kilowatt-hour of electric power. In New York, where coal accounts for 20 percent of all electricity used, people pay 13 cents for each kilowatt-hour.

Richard Bajura, director of the National Research Center for Coal and Energy at West Virginia University, said, "Our electricity generation has tripled since 1970s, but our emissions have gone down steadily for both sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide."

And coal costs less, Bajura said. Of the 25 lowest-cost electric plants in the United States in 2001, 22 were fired by coal.

Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said, "People oppose the coal industry. But I have yet to hear them advance a viable alternative to coal -- one that is as efficient, as cost-effective, as reliable and as available in the amounts this country needs."

Norm Steenstra, executive director of the West Virginia Citizen Action Group, said: "We will certainly have coal for another generation. But the one big step we need is for the coal and electric power industries to finally admit there are negative sides to burning coal.

"We need to create a massive public works project for scrubbers, better power plants and new coal technology," he said. "But every time people suggest that, the industry denies there is any need for it. That is the hypocrisy of coal generation."

Government agencies predict a continuing expansion of coal production: The U.S. Department of Energy projects a 45 percent increase in the demand for energy over the next 20 years, fueled primarily by coal and natural gas. During the past 50 years, energy consumption in the United States decreased only three times -- in 1974, 1982 and 2001. The U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts world coal consumption will increase from 5.29 billion tons in 2001 to 7.36 billion tons by 2020.

Renewable fuel sources -- including wind, solar and hydroelectric power -- are far less damaging to our environment, coal critics argue. But these power sources are more expensive and take up huge areas of land.

Judy Rodd, director of Friends of Blackwater, a citizens group working to protect the Blackwater Canyon and River watershed, is critical of wind power projects in West Virginia's eastern counties.

"While wind power has a lot of potential, it has to be carefully sited," she said. "Backlashes against wind power develop if wind turbines kill birds and bats and ruin scenic areas.

"All new technologies should undergo NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] evaluations before they are built.

Right now, wind power falls outside of those regulations."

Raney said, "In order to meet the projected energy needs of this country in 2010 with solar power and windmills, it would take an area the size of Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island combined."

A coal plant providing power to 50,000 homes takes up 100 acres of land. A solar plant serving those same homes would occupy 1,000 acres. Windmills would cover 4,000 acres.

In her recent book "Coal: A Human History," Barbara Freese documents the massive environmental and health hazards from burning coal. But the Industrial Revolution would not have occurred without coal.

Coal and crude oil, Freese adds, also saved whales from extinction and forests from destruction. People no longer needed to kill sperm whales for oil or to chop down as many trees to heat homes.

Bajura predicts U.S. coal will play a growing role in world markets. "China is buying coal on the world market, including coal from America. This is a tremendous change which diverts coal from domestic uses."

Raney sees no realistic alternative to coal in the immediate future.

"Many critics of the coal [industry] also complain about the wind industry. And you can only imagine what would be needed to generate enough hydroelectric capacity. I don't know if the physical capability is here to do it. And nuclear plants -- coal critics do not advocate them."

One long-term possibility is using hydrogen to generate electricity. "But one of the most efficient ways to get hydrogen is from coal," Raney said.

Steenstra also predicts few immediate changes.

"As long as coal is cheap, there is no incentive for research on projects like hydrogen or solar power. And being totally beholden to Middle Eastern oil, as long as it is affordable, also means there are few incentives to put research into alternative energies," Steenstra said.

"Only when the market economy decides it makes more sense to switch to another fuel will anything change."

Bajura said he also sees few immediate alternatives.

"Natural gas production has reached its peak in this country," he said. "There is a problem finding more. We would have to depend on foreign sources. That raises a possibility of terrorism, if we import compressed natural gas tanks into our ports.

"Nuclear power is probably the cheapest. But we don't have any new nuclear plants and people in Nevada don't want spent fuel rods stored at the Yucca Mountain facility.

"Wind energy works. But there are folks in Tucker County who are not thrilled with having too many windmills. There are disadvantages and advantages to every source.

"Hydrogen power has a lot of advantages. But right now, it will take fossil energy, most likely coal, to produce hydrogen. And hydrogen fuel cells have not been developed that are affordable and reliable," Bajura said.

"Fusion energy can use water to generate electricity. But that takes very high temperatures that melt anything we now know about.

"We still have several centuries of coal supplies. Eventually, if the world lasts that long, we will run out of fossil fuels. But I am not going to be here to see it."

Energy conservation must become part of any long-term solution, many critics say.

Domestic consumption rose by 17 percent during the 1990s, Raney noted, while domestic production rose by only 2.3 percent.

Today, the average American consumes twice as much electricity as the average Japanese citizen, who is the world's second-highest electricity user.

Clyde Prestowitz, a former top economic adviser in the Reagan administration, points out in his recent book, "Rogue Nation," that Japan produces $1 worth of gross domestic product with half the electricity used in the United States to do so.

Europe produces $1 in GDP with two-thirds the electric power consumed here.

A continuing failure to conserve energy consumption, Prestowitz warns, will lead to a growing vulnerability to other nations that have the fuels we consume.

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