Coal: Part of America’s Blended Energy Solution

This month, Energy Central’s featured writer poses another inconvenient truth: we need coal as part of America’s energy solution.

Mark Gabriel, an executive management consultant for R.W. Beck, carefully lays out the need for America’s coal by looking at our projected energy demand alongside our means of meeting it, citing a recent report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation that shows that six of 10 U.S. regions will have insufficient electricity capacity by 2009. Says Gabriel: “No amount of alternative energy can meet the needs in the next 10 to 15 years, even if some huge hurdles such as energy storage are achieved.”

Need a visual? Take a look at this graph, using figures from the EIA’s 2007 Annual Energy Outlook:

Source: Energy Information Administration 2007 Annual Energy Outlook
Electricity demand is expected to increase in the U.S. by 1.7% per year through 2030 requiring an increase in generating capacity of roughly 30%.

On top of the cold, hard facts, Gabriel delivers a dose of harsh reality for politicians and coal opponents:

The current aversion to coal is another clear example that politicians and the public do not recognize the complex nature of our energy enterprise, its critical nature and fragility. More than 30 coal plants were canceled or delayed in the U.S. in 2007 at a time when electricity demand was rising making the total number of canceled or delayed plants over the past two years to 52.

[T]hese cancellations are rationalized through the mistaken belief that energy efficiency and renewables can supplant the baseload generation provided by coal and nuclear as well as an unrealistic reliance on natural gas, which again topped $10 a million cubic feet in early April, up from $3 just three years ago.

Gabriel’s article underscores the point we’ve been making all along: coal needs to be part of the energy conversation. It’s our most abundant, affordable resource and we couldn’t run the country without it. The sooner we stop making coal part of the problem and get on board with making it part of the solution, the sooner we’ll get cleaner technologies to market and reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources.

Read more.

Comments

[WALTER CYRUS]

JUST ABOUT EVERY DAY I SEE RAIL ROAD CARS LOADED WITH COAL AND I SAY TO MYSELF AND OTHE PEOPLE WHY CAN'T THERE BE MORE COAL FOR OUR ENERGY I;M ALL FOR ENVIROMENTAL REGULATIONS BUT SOMETIMES THEY GO TOO FAR AND IT HURTS THE COAL FOR ENERGY I;M GLAD WE HAVE THE USE OF COAL

[Showalter]

Coal is king and will stay that way for another 100 years.