http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfL7STmWZ1c
(Let me preface this article with this statement. This is not my usual rant about cleaner energy and renewable energy resources. I am not making a comment on how this or that politician is or is not ruining some industry or saving the environment. This is simply a talk about the future.)
So I was reading my usual dozen or so news feeds this morning like I do every morning and I read this article (First link) about how a propaganda war was being fought in Coal Country. Now I make no claims to the truthfulness of the article or whether or not our CIC is actually warring on the carbonized remains of plants and dinosaurs. I make no claims on whether or not Big Coal is the Great Satan that Environmentalists make it out to be. (Though I do point out that any industry that involves blowing the tops off mountains and burying valleys and streams under the debris might be a tad harmful but that is just my humble opinion.)
The thoughts that the first article inspired reminded me of the second link which I have mentioned before. Coal is a dying industry. No one wants to admit it, but even if the EPA repeals all of its rules and regulations governing mining and burning Coal is on its last legs.
Various estimates place the total amount of usable coal at between 150 and 350 years. Now that is total coal available in the US and includes the easy to get to stuff (Which is getting scarcer and scarcer) and the really hard to get to stuff (Which is becoming the norm). It also covers the "Good" coal which is fairly clean to burn and produces energy efficiently and the "Poor" coal which can still be burned, but doesn't work so good. It doesn't include the (currently) unusable types of coal which burn to poorly to be any good.
Most people would look at 150 to 350 years and think "Ah, that's plenty of time. Why worry?" and as far as energy usage, they'd be essentially right. A century and a half is plenty of time to develop newer and better ways to generate energy, but this rant isn't about energy generation. It's about people. Unless we start working on solutions now, Big Coal is going to turn into the next Gold Bust.
The US is filled with towns ranging from small little burgs to fairly large cities that sprang up when (Insert name of valuable commodity here) was discovered. At their peak they had businesses and homes where people prospered and lived their lives. Then when the substance was gone, business moved on and the towns died. Sure, they struggled along for a while but eventually people accepted the inevitable and changed.
That is what is happening today with Big Coal towns and cities. As the easy to get coal veins are exhausted, the mines slow operations or close entirely. Despite attempts to vilify them, most coal companies attempt to move most of their employees to other mines, but this does little to help the towns that depended on the mine's operations for prosperity. This is happening more and more as time passes and it has little to do with the Government or the EPA unless Obama is secretly stealing all of the coal veins while no one is looking.
What no one likes to admit is that Coal (Along with Oil, Natural Gas etc) are FINITE resources. They won't last forever no matter how much we want them to. One day, maybe centuries in the future or maybe not, they will run out. (Well at least for the time being. Eventually in a few million or so years, Mama Earth will make more but I doubt it will do us much good.) All of the mines, power plants etc that revolve around these resources will slowly dry up. (This is where Devito's speech on Buggy Whips really comes into play. I bet the last remaining Power Plants/Mines/Wells will be the absolute bestest ever, but they will still be the LAST.)
If we just sit back and watch this happen, America will be filled with "Gold Bust" towns. Sure, we will eventually build new towns with new industries, but it will take time and money. However, if we start working on the problem now with building new infrastructures and working on new industries then we might just be able to stop the ghost towns from forming or at least ease the problems somewhat. Instead of waiting and reacting, let's act first.
Like I said in the beginning, this rant isn't about clean energy vs coal/gas etc. It is not about saving the environment vs jobs. I fully grasp (at least for the foreseeable future) that coal/gas/oil will have to play a major part in our lives. It is unavoidable no matter what Environmentalists want. I just think, just this one time, wouldn't it be wonderful if we started planning for the future before we are forced to? We tend to act after the disaster never before even when we can see it coming. Well, we can see this one coming and it is unavoidable. Do we react to it while we have time or wait until it runs us over?
END OF RANT
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