West Virginia wind versus coal: mining the debate for energy
Around Iowa, you see the occasional wind turbine—usually attached to some small industrial-style building. Ride out from Los Angeles to Palm Springs and you see them California-style: vast landscapes of metal towers lazily twirling in a soft wind.
The Register Herald reports that some in West Virginia would prefer a wind farm to more coal strip mines. They report:
Residents of Clear Fork, Marsh Fork and other Raleigh County areas, with the support of environmental and community organizations such as Coal River Mountain Watch, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Appalachian Voices and the Sierra Club, asked the Raleigh County Commission Tuesday to support a proposed wind farm, which they say offers more long-term economic, social and environmental benefits to the county.
I seldom venture into the wild fights that swirl around eastern coal mining. It is such an arcane world of privilege, old history, powerful interests, and muddled thinking. I have read thoughtful reports that justify the vast turn-over of soils that the mining induces. The one I recall best likened the scale of soil turn-over to that which occurred when the glaciers came barrelling down from Canada into Iowa leaving behind the young black clay soils that make this such a productive farming state. This same paper claimed that the old, dead soils over the coal fields had not been thus rejuvenated in the long-past past, and now would benefit from just such a turn-over.
We read so many news reports of filled valleys, poisoned streams, and relocated villages. But seldom, except in the professional journals, do we read of the resuscitated, turn-over soil and the new stands of vegetation on the man-created topography. Surely it is not as bad as the bad popular press would like us to believe.
But if it is, this report from Raleigh County may be a opportunity for objective comparison. Provided they can find coal and metal somewhere else to make the wind turbines. The report touches on a comparison:
“Mcilmoil claims production estimates in the strip mining permits show that mining operations will last for only 14 years. “Once the coal is gone, there will be no more jobs available, the water will be contaminated, many of the residents will have moved out or been bought out, and the forest, another source of potential jobs and revenue, will be gone for decades to come, as will the possibility of producing clean wind energy on the scale that is currently available,” he said.
“So far, we have been in contact with two interested companies, and it also would have the strong support of both local and national organizations interested in supporting sustainable community development initiatives in Appalachia,” Mcilmoil said. “Not only would the development of a Coal River Mountain wind farm be more economically beneficial in the long term that the proposed strip mining would, it would result in the preservation of the mountain for the development of other economic alternatives, such as tourism, sustainable timber harvesting, hunting and fishing, and providing the resources for local craft and furniture production. Raleigh County could ultimately serve as a model for other counties in southern West Virginia facing a post-coal future.”
These points are reasonable. But there is more to it, I supect: like the cost of the turbines, the value of the power they will produce, the profits from the coal, the productivity of turned-over soil.
Not being knowledgeable in these matters, I stop. But ask that you let me know where the truth lies in this debate.
5 comments
Hey Jack,
I dont have much time to fully discuss the merits of the wind farm or the destructive impacts of strip-mining, but I assure you if you’re interested, I would be glad to begin that discussion. I would like to address your inquiry into what is beyond the points I/we put forth in proposing a Coal River Mountain wind farm. To start with the soil turnover:
The soil on strip-mines is not turned over, as you would a compost pile or your own garden. These forests exist with some of the richest soil in the world. They are temperate rainforests, and they are one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world. When strip-mines come in, they dont “turn over” the soil. Sure, by law, they are supposed to remove and store the soil for when the mining is complete (most often times a decade or more later), but they dont. Here’s how the process ACTUALLY goes.
The coal companies clear-cut the mine site. 90% of the time, they dont even sell or distribute this valuable hardwood timber for commercial use. They either burn it on site or dump it into the valleys. Along with that goes the soil. Yup, they actually dump the soil into the valley fills, which are constructed in headwater streams. This has all been scientifically documented, see the EPA’s Environmental Impact study on MTR and Valley Fills (can be viewed by clicking on Final PEIS at http://www.epa.gov/Region3/mtntop/), or the work of Ben Stout from Wheeling-Jesuit University. Then they begin blasting the rock to get at the coal. Most of that rock is also then dumped/bulldozed into the valley, covering the soil and trees. When all is said and done, what the reclaimed land consists of is pulverized rock and coal that they then hydroseed with lespedeza, a scrub grass that can grow in the harshest of conditions, and sometimes desert bushes. I’m not making this up, I’ve been studying MTR and reclamation for 18 months now.
As for the cost of turbines, those costs are assumed by the developer. The estimated cost of the CRM wind farm would be around $750 million. Alot of money yes, but here’s the counter-point. A proposed medium size coal-fired power plant generating 400-500MW of electricity costs well over $1Billion. Take a look into the costs of proposed coal plants around the US these days, you’ll see I’m right. As for cost of electricity, the CRM wind farm will produce electricity at 6.5-7.0 cents per kilowatt-hour, based on cost of the farm plus taxes over a 20 year period divided by the amount of energy it would produce. So that cost is an average over 20 years. Secondly, Appalachian Power just announced that it is requesting a rate increase in WV from 6.4 to 7.35 cents per kilowatt-hour, citing the recent doubling in the price of Appalachian coal as requiring higher electricity rates so as to cover the higher purchasing costs for AEP. Lastly, this wont be the last time AEP makes such a request, as global demand for App coal combined with dwindling App coal reserves will result in a steady increase in coal electricity over the next couple of decades. The wind farm, however, once developed, will produce electricity at a constant price over the life of the farm.
Whats next. profits from coal. This one will blow you away. A single county, Raleigh County, the county where we are proposing this wind farm, saw $450 million worth of coal leave on coal trains in 2006. The mining employed 1400 people (1.8% of total county population, 3.5% of total county workforce, so not much of an economic benefit for most) at a total of $70M in income (see low pop % to understand how little this benefited the general county population). In return, Raleigh County received $1.5 million in severance tax receipts. This “share” of the coal wealth amounts to a third of a percent….let that one sink in….a third of a percent of the total wealth that left on the trains. Raleigh County remains one of the poorest in the nation.
Now, coal will still be mined in Raleigh County, even if the wind farm is built. It will still be mined in the underground mines currently active below the mountain. Raleigh County will still receive the same pittance of an economic return for the destructive investment of its land. BUT, the $750K that the wind farm would add to county tax revenues, each year, amounts to an automatic 50% increase in the amount of tax revenue coming from energy resources. AND, it would eliminate, at least for one set of communities, the increased social, health, environmental and economic costs that ALWAYS result from massive strip-mine (read Mountaintop Removal) operations.
I hope this helps shed some light on the subject. I’ll be checking your post again. Take care.
Rory McIlmoil
Coal River Mountain Wind Project
A couple of edits on my previous post:
“As for the cost of turbines, those costs are assumed by the developer” (which, yes, is passed on to the consumer, but the rest of my argument addresses that issue).
“based on cost of the farm plus taxes over a 20 year period divided by the amount of energy it would produce” — the COE that I’ve estimated also reflects the availability of a 1.9 cent/kWh federal Production Tax Credit, which just got extended for another year.
Lastly, this wont be the last time AEP makes such a request, as global demand for App coal combined with dwindling App coal reserves will result in a steady increase in THE PRICE OF coal electricity over the next couple of decades.
Thanks. Rory
I live there and my family has been here for 10 generations and I am a coal miners daughter and grand daughter. I can tell you that coal mining has poisoned our water. Scientists just proved that the turned over soil you talk about is the cause of and if not stopped will become a major toxic event in streams below the strip mining. Since coal is finite and depeleting quickly then we had better start to use it to sustain us for the future. Not to mention that the burning of coal is cooking the planet adn poisoning the air.
I am a member of the Sierra Club and on theWVChapter EXCOMM and the WV Chapter Outings Chair.
We recently voted to support this wind project and agree with Rory’s report. Mountaintop removal must be stopped.
Hi everyone,
I’ve been using my photography to help document mountaintop removal, related scenes, people trying to stop MTR, and those badly affected by it (and believe me, many thousands of people are badly affectd by it, to varying degrees, just in southern West Virginia, no to mention the pollution from coal-fired power plants in many states).
One need not come from out of state, as I do, to fully appreciate the insanity of mountaintop removal, but maybe it helps. Imagine totally destroying thousands of years worth of some of the Earth’s most diverse hardwood forest, so a few prople at the top of the coal pyramid can make immense fortunes for a short time. Remember that these forests are/were alive with many game and non-game species of wildlife, with medicinal herbs used traditionally for many generations. The forests nourish and are nourished by, beautiful mountain streams, until MTR comes along. Picture a lushly-forested mountain, crystal-clear streams– peaceful, productive, nourishing to the body and spirit. Then picture a poisoned flattened rockscape hundreds of feet lower than the original mountaintop. Now the headwater streams, and the rich aquatic life in them, are buried beneath hundreds of feet of pulverized rock, poisoned by the explosives that tore apart this priceless landscape. Also realize that southern West Virginia is dotted by scores of earthen-dam impoundments each containing hundreds of millions of gallons of poisoned coal sludge, the by-product of “cleaning” the coal for combustion. Those billions of gallons of water are lost forever for any kind of use by humans or wildlife, and those sludge impoundments, unlined and vulnerable to bursting or slow seepage will poison the earth for untold centuries, unless, of course the taxpayers are burdened with the immense cleanup of something they did not create.
Residents who live on land that has been in their families for eight, ten generations, are forced off their land by the mining industry, so these sociopaths can operate freely, inside some of the worst political corruption imagineable.
The coal industry has never been about jobs, or even about providing energy. From the time that their front men swindled innocent hardscrabble farmers out of their land or their mineral rights in the late 1800s (read Harry Caudill’s classic “Night Comes to the Cumberlands”), the coal industry has established a feudal system right here in the U.S., made all the rules to operate without a shred of responsibility to the land, its employees or any residents.
There is no such thing as “clean coal.” “Clean coal” is a myth created by the coal industry and their bought-off “public” servants, to try to legitimize a practice that should be part of history, and not part of tomorrow.
This is crystal clear to a reasonable observer. The other crystal clear point is the desperate and widespread poverty of the coal region. The coal and the money go out; the poverty and lack of opportunity remain.
Coal mining employees have been brainwashed into believing that environmentalists are trying to take their jobs. Not So! In 1960, approximately 120,000 coal miners were employed in West Virginia. Today, that number is about 15,000, mostly due to the horrifying mechanical efficiency of mountaintop removal, even though much deep mining still exists. Unemployed miners should vent their ire on the corrupt state government which has kept out any kind of sustainable, local and regional employment that would truly benefit the residents. Pennsylvania, a state with a bad enough coal background, is pushing for greatly increased production of wind energy, that will provide clean jobs for many years. The same can be done in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. Also, ripping the forests off of over one-half million acres has put many people out of work (and way into the future) in the timber and wood products industries.
Total insanity. Stop it now!
Mark Schmerling
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