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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Energy Department says Central Appalachian coal production is rapidly declining

The U.S. Department of Energycontinues to project that Central Appalachia is running out of coal. The department estimates that in just over three years, production will drop from 234 million tons to 112 million. From 2000 to 2009, production in both surface and underground mines in the region dropped by 25 percent. Coal companies blame the Obama Administration and stricter Environmental Protection Agency regulations, saying they are slowing production and reducing jobs. But they admit that coal seams in Appalachia are getting thinner, making them harder and more costly to mine.

Dylan Lovan of The Associated Press reports that losing half its coal production would have a "devastating effect" on Central Appalachia economies dependent by coal mining. A report by Downstream Strategies, a consulting firm in Morgantown, W.Va., estimates that 37,000 coal-industry employees in the region in 2008 accounted for up to to 40 percent of the workforce in some counties. Rory McIlmoil, who helped draft the report, told AP that job losses would happen rapidly during this decline and that West Virginia could expect to lose over $100 million in taxes paid by coal operators.

Industry supporters and politicians from the area are attacking the federal government and the EPA for enacting regulations they say "kill jobs," Lovan reports. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Gov. Steve Beshear and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin have openly said the EPA has started a "war on coal." On a recent visit with President Obama, Beshear asked him to reduce regulation of the industry. A national study found that regulations have little effect on jobs, and Robert Ukeiley, an environmental lawyer in Berea, Ky., told Lovan that political and industry leaders are ignoring facts: "They'll blame it on Obama and climate change, rather than just acknowledge that geology trumps economics."

The Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, said in an outlook statement released in 2011 that Central Appalachia coal is "extensively mined" and said that because the region's coal costs more, it will eventually be replaced by cheaper coal from regions like the Powder River Basin in Wyoming, which produced about 417 million tons in 2009. (Read more)

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