Monday, April 26, 2010

Coal usage in UK and US

It is common knowledge that coal usage is increasing as globalization reaches developing nations. In the US, the EPA has helped to veto a bill calling for more mountain top removal. The removal adds to air and water pollution as well as ruining the beauty of the land. In the UK the economy is, too, dependent on the production and usage of coal for such items as iron and steel. The problem is found when the majority of coal is taken from the surface, the amount of energy required to access it makes the equation of "energy-return-on-investment (EROI)" decline. As coal continues to become harder to mine, sustainable alternatives are much needed and desired.

5 comments:

  1. yes. clearly the need for a sustainable, renewable source of energy is a necessity in this day and age!

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  2. I just want to comment on the your statement about EROI. It would make more sense that mountain top removal would have a higher EROI since it requires less infrastructure to harvest it. Am I thinking about this wrong?

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  3. It is important for us to move to more sustainable resources. The major problem with this in the coal industry is cost and jobs. While it is true that over the long-term solar and wind would be less expensive, beginning these practices are costly. Also, one of the major objections of moving away from coal is job loss. Of course environmentalists see that there is more job creation as we go greener. We have to move away from lobbying and towards education.

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  4. Coal mining is not going away anytime soon and it is important to find cleaner ways of preforming coal mining operations. It is the best policy to move away from coal all together but until that is a viable option we should seek to reduce as much as possible the environmental effects of coal mining and burning.

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  5. It is such an effort to mine this coal. If the time and money was put into renewable energy the benefits could be just as great. The fact that it is harder and harder to get to is saying enough.

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