Energy Alternatives

Safety in Our Coal Mines and The Mountain Top Coal Mining Debate

Not long ago there was an interesting the article in the NYT’s about Mountain Top coal mining. The article explained how it might be done safely to mitigate environmental concerns. Why? Well, above ground mining is much safer, and obviously we have a lot of coal in the US, so clean coal technologies are the way to go.

Most of us, I guess I feel sorry for the Chinese coal workers, heck they seem to have a big accident every few weeks killing lots of workers, often 50 or more at a time. The safety issue alone is a huge concern, and yet, environmentalists are up in arms. And say it is impossible to shave off the top of a mountain without hurting the environment.

Still, proponents say, there are ways to do above ground coal mining of mountains without polluting the runoff water, which is a huge concern. Strip mining really was the main cause for the Federal Clean Water Act originally, not necessarily coal, they did it for nearly everything they needed that was buried, we don’t do that anymore, but in the case of mountain top coal mining we may again in the future.

Of course, everyone raises holy hell when trapped miners in PA, WV, UT, KY get trapped too, and we’ve over regulated our mining companies into bankruptcy, which only increases the cost of raw materials for our manufacturing to the level (between that and labor) that we cannot compete in global markets. And with increased regulation on coal fired plants, we raise the costs of energy to the point we cannot compete either, down from 70-45-17-7% manufacturing sector now.

I’ve toured a number of mines in the nation and seen the ponds and the concerns about waste leaching into the ground water along with the byproducts used to separate out copper, zinc, nickel, etc flushing into the waterways. The over regulation is pretty severe, but if Mountain top coal mining could be done responsibly it should be done like that, it would save lives, although I do agree leveling a mountain into a major runoff creek or ravine, then damming it up irresponsibly, is a disaster waiting to happen. An eco-nightmare and the problem in Tennessee recently sure weren’t funny when that all gave way. Yuk!

Clean Coal is coming and that is only a matter of time, and if we build more electric cars, we’ll need more coal to keep the electricity flowing. Think on this, these are all important issues and they are all interconnected.

Lance Winslow - Lance Winslow’s Bio. Lance Winslow is also Founder of the Car Wash Guys, a cool little Franchise Company; http://www.carwashguys.com/history/founder.html/.