How will subsidizing coal conversion affect mining?
Public subsidies for coal conversion will increase the pressure to mine in ecologically sensitive areas like eastern Kentucky’s steep-slope mountains and western Kentucky’s fertile farmlands. These communities are already under assault from mountaintop removal mining and other destructive mining practices. In recent decades, at least 1,200 miles of headwater mountain streams have been buried under valley fills caused by surface coal mining and more than 400 individual mountains have been erased. Peabody Energy predicts that building one coal-to-gas plant in western Kentucky will increase demand for coal by 5-7 million tons per year. This would have the effect of increasing mining in Kentucky by more than 4% annually, compared with total coal production in 2005. And that is just a start. The National Coal Council’s 2006 report called for replacing 10% of America’s transportation fuels with liquid coal, an achievement that would increase mining in the US by 43%.
