Alaska 's Coal Clean Coal

In the United States, 42 percent of the nation’s electricity is generated by burning coal as coal is cheap and plentiful.

Fossil Fuels are extremely harmful to the environment, especially in the ways the fuel is obtained, such as mining or hydraulic fracturing. Coal, a commonly used fossil fuel, can be obtained by strip mining, mountaintop mining, or underground mining (“Coal Explained”). Strip mining has disastrous effects on the environment because of the destructive nature of the process, which removes all soil, rock, trees, and plants above coal deposits. The runoff from this pollutes streams and rivers nearby, which can harm aquatic life and disfigure the body of water,

The first reason is the pollution. Any major mining excavation creates a huge amount of waste. This waste is toxic to the environment, and the method for containing it is not 100% guaranteed. They store this waste in large man made holes called tailing dams. There have been many reports of these storage structures breaking and spilling the waste all over the land. This waste would pollute the land and make it uninhabitable. The most affected would be the salmon. Salmon fishing is huge part of the Alaskan life and if the salmon were affected by the mining, a lot of people would lose their jobs.

Con: No, America is heading towards a better way to produce energy, a clean renewable energy that is not dangerous to the environment.

I would have to say that from the reading that it can be very harmful for the coal mining chemicals to seep into the ground into our drinking water.

This paper will review past practices and policies relating to mountaintop coal mining, evaluate and analyze current research on the impact of coal mining on human health, and provide recommendations for further research guided by logic and in agreement with biblical truth.

We want instant gratification and coal fits the bill. I noted in my book review of Crude World that Peter Maass didn’t present a balanced picture of the oil industry; it was all bad. He was intended to highlight the negative aspect of our oil dependency. Big Coal is the same in that respect. It is hard to argue that coal hasn’t improved the lives of a great many people around the world, and we know a number of people who would argue that these improvements outweigh the negatives. Further, it is fair to say that the coal industry has come a long way in cleaning up their emission profile over the past few

When I go to my home where I grew up it is all electrical produced and the main producer of that electricity is from coal a fossil fuel. In that area coal is one of the primary exports of that area. (Administration,

Have you ever thought about how your able to use a TV or lamp? There are people who have to work in mines or around dangerous machinery just so we can have that privilege. Thousands of miners and other people have been killed because of coal mining. Coal mining has brought some good thought taxes and jobs created. The most important effects of coal mining on the state of West Virginia are thousands of jobs being created, coal affecting West Virginia economically, and coal being used for energy.

Things like mining too far into a wall that connects to an older mine, thus increasing the danger of a collapse, is common. Other practices include shoddy dams that contain the slurry, a mixture of water and fine particles of coal, which do not always meet structural regulations that can and have broken and flood nearby communities (Light and Light, 2006). There are other environmental issues that are associated with coal mining. Acid mine drainage is the result of sulfide minerals being exposed to oxygen. This produces sulfuric acid and can dissolve heavy metals from the waste rock, making it bioavailable. Without proper treatment, this will poison the water systems near that mine and will seep into the streams, creeks, and even ground and well water. The water turns orange and is impossible for anything to live off of the water or in it (Kirsch, 2014). Another issue of coal mining is airborne coal dust, which can result in Black Lung disease. This is caused by inhaling too much coal dust and is common in miners, but with surface mining becoming more prevalent, more coal dust is being released into the air and drifting down to the communities. More children and elderly people are having respiratory problems that many believe are because of

Since 1742, West Virginia has provided our nation and the world with the finest coal found anywhere. As of today, West Virginia’s coal miners apply useful and effective mineral removal technology that makes other countries envy their counterparts around the world. West Virginia’s exports more coal than any other state in the country. West Virginia has more longwall mining systems than any other state. This leads the nation in underground coal productions and sets the pace for the rest of the industry in recovery and environment protection. At the same time, West Virginia coal industry displays a sense of responsibility for health, safety and environmental that is incomparable anywhere in the world. Over the years, coal has

In believe we should not drill in Alaska to satisfy our fuel dependencies. As stated in the documentary “We can import minerals but we cannot import wilderness”, drilling begins a tradeoff; in exchange for minerals we get a damaged ecosystem. Some argue that Alaska has an immense supply of resources that would liberate us from foreign oil, however, there is no guarantee of vast quantities of minerals in Alaska, as the U.S. Department of Energy has stated that there is "considerable uncertainty regarding both the size and quality of the oil resources that exist”. Drilling damages the environment while possibly wielding disappointing results. Even if there is a reservoir of natural resources in Alaska it would not be immediately available

Jason Hayes, communications director for the American Coal Council says “the industry over the past few decades had invested over $100 billion in cleaning up emissions and it’s already been effective. All of the important noxious pollutants have decreased markedly over the last 30 to 40 years. We’ve been doing all of this on top of dealing with everything else.” Coal may not be green, but it is a source of energy American needs. It is cheap and efficient. Without coal, America wouldn’t be anywhere near where it is today. The coal mined here isn’t just used for energy. America’s

There has been one thing quite a few people tend to skip over in the local newspapers and on the news. It is known as drilling, but that is not much of a concern. Why would anyone care? It means nothing to them anyway. To the animals and ecosystems, it does. Pretty soon dozens of wildlife will be endangered. What they call home will be long gone. That will be placed in the past and drilling will take the ecosystem's place in Alaska's Coastal Plain. Something needs to be done now before the creatures lose their only home.

With that being said here are some environmental impacts of coal you may not know about. The air pollutants cause acid rain, smog ,respiratory illnesses, cancers and toxins in the environment. Coal miners can get respiratory illnesses from the coal dust while mining. If an abandoned coal mine catches fire it puts tons of mercury into the atmosphere, this happens every year and is responsible for three percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally. The second largest contributor to