Coal panelists are optimistic about future of clean energy
Though Illinois will certainly never return to the levels of coal industry
employment seen at the turn of the 20th Century, the future of coal mining in
Illinois has to be brighter than 15 years ago -- provided the nation gets serious
about clean-coal technology and an energy policy, coal panelists say.
Coal experts held a public forum Thursday night at SIC on the future of mining in
the state. The forum was sponsored by Connect SI and the Southern Illinois
University-Carbondale Coal Research Center.
Illinois was one of the hardest-hit states when the Clean Air Act was passed in the
early 1990s. At the dawn of the 20th Century, over 100,000 people were employed in
coal mining, according to Joe Angleton, director of the state Office of Mines and
Minerals and keynote speaker for Thursday's event. Coal, of course, was the fuel for
industry at that time.
"Coal has been what allowed the industrial revolution that made this country what it
is today," Angleton said.
By 1978, the industry was still booming -- about 18,000 were employed in 71 mines
statewide. By 2000, the number had declined sharply -- 3,500 miners in just 18
mines. This year, 21 mines are open and 4,000 people are employed in the industry, a
slight rebound over levels seen in the 1990s.
The immediate future gives some hope, Angleton said. A new mine is opening early
next year in Franklin County. The Washington County Peabody Prairie State Energy
Campus will be the largest construction project in Illinois since O'Hare
International Airport. Hillsboro Energy has a mine in the permit stages in
Montgomery County, along with Locust Grove in Williamson County and Sugar Camp in Franklin County.
Prairie State will produce 450 permanent jobs -- 100 to 125 of those will be in the
power plant that is planned as part of the project, according to Robert Reynolds,
director of project management for Peabody Energy.
With energy demand nationwide increasing at a rate of 1.5 to 2 percent, the price of
oil hovering around $100 per barrel and utility costs rising fast, it makes sense to
look into coal and cleaner ways to burn the fuel, Angleton said.
But as it stands right now, most of the base load for that increased energy
consumption could be natural gas, not coal. Natural gas is a great way to heat homes
and businesses directly, but it loses so many BTUs when used to generate electricity
that natural gas cannot be our long-term solution to rising electricity needs.
"It is too valuable a commodity to have 60 percent of it wasted," Angleton said.
If energy independence is a national goal, then natural gas is an even worse
commodity to lean on, Angleton said.
"Even gas, with the predictions I am seeing, we are going to be importing," Angleton
said.
As a net importer of oil, the United States has comparatively little control over
its energy sources, Angleton said. However, increased use of coal could alleviate
some of that problem -- Illinois has more BTUs of energy in coal underneath its soil
than Saudi Arabia and Kuwait combined have in oil.
Reynolds pointed out rising fuel costs make it more costly to bring low-sulfur coal
from Wyoming to Illinois -- if oil costs stay high, it could be a good thing for the
coal industry here. The low transportation costs associated with mine-mouth power
plants -- conveyor belts instead of long-haul trucking -- could mean the research
into clean-coal technology will be worthwhile in the long run, Reynolds said. There
is a 10 to 20 percent cost advantage for mine-mouth power plants based on
transportation alone, Reynolds said. As the price of oil and diesel fuel rise, that
cost advantage rises.
Illinois uses nuclear energy to produce more than half its electricity. Angleton
reminded the audience of the sunny scenario presented when nuclear power plants were first built -- eventually the electricity would be too cheap to bother with meters.
But nuclear power has turned out to be the most expensive form of electrical
production so far -- nuclear power is running 11 to 16 cents per kilowatt-hour
because of storage and nuclear waste costs, Angleton said.
Right now, due to high electric costs for consumers and businesses in Illinois
relative to surrounding states, it would not be cost-efficient for a plant that uses
lots of electric energy to locate in Illinois. Indiana derives 97 percent of its
electricity from coal, Iowa 78 percent, Kentucky 91 percent, Missouri 85 percent --
all have lower electricity prices and are therefore more attractive to certain
industries, Angleton said.
Part of the problem is lack of a coherent energy policy, Angleton said. Energy
policy was bandied about in the 1970s during the oil crunch and gasoline shortages,
but fell by the wayside when the immediate crises passed and inflation eased in the
mid-1980s.
"The country has not had an energy policy since Jimmy Carter tried to establish
one," Angleton said.
Coal should be the linchpin of a sound energy policy, he said. And Illinois should
be out front.
"Illinois should be an exporter of electricity, not an importer of western coal.
Thirty percent of coal currently mined in Illinois stays in state; operators have to
find out-of-state markets for most of the coal mined here. That is partly due to the
sulfur content in Illinois coal, which panelists agreed can be dealt with.
If we can send people to the moon, we can deal with the situation with coal to make
it burned cleanly in Illinois," Angleton said.