Coal

In a growing world, electricity production is becoming a problem due to coal fired electrical plants releasing millions of gallons of greenhouse gases, ecological problems with pollution in water, and health risks concerning workers and people living nearby. But with new technology and advances in renewable energy sources, wind energy is becoming one of the most popular energy sources for many states.

The pollution is leaving our footprint rate out of control! Knowing that they have gotten rid of all the coal generators is a big reduction of the ecological footprint. Without the generators burning off the coal, the pollution will stay at a lower rate causing the footprint to decrease. It is more sustainable now than before because our city doesn't have to worry about trying to maintain the pollution levels as much as we used to and we can focus on more of the major projects.

Coal seam gas (CSG) is mostly composed of methane and is typically attached to coal underground. This gas is released when pressure on the coal seam is reduced by removing water from the seams (Queensland Government, 2014 ). In order to obtain the gas, wells are drilled into the coal seams, bringing water from the coal seams to the surface. This process reduces pressure and allows the gas to be released (Queensland Government, 2014 ). CSG is an important energy resource in Queensland and production of this gas takes up an ever-increasing proportion of Queensland gas use.

In 2008 coal had a peak production. In 2016 coal was responsible for 15% of the United States energy consumption. That was a decrease from previous years. The amount of coal being produced now is the same amount as it was in 1977. Coal has been decreasing for the past few years because

"Some day the earth will weep, she will beg for her life, she will cry with tears of blood. You will make a choice, if you will help her or let her die, and when she dies, you will die too." -John Hollow Horn, Oglala Lakota. Hear Mr. Horn explains how it is our job to take care of the earth. Our ancestors have put blood sweat and tears into this land to pass it down in the condition it is. Line 5 is a oil pipeline that runs striaght through one of michigans great lakes. When it was originally installed it was hurting any wildlife or the land. Now nearing 60 years later the line is very oil and has a risk of bursting. If this was to happen it would many aspects of the land, such as the history, tourist, and wildlife.

The history of company towns in the coal industry is not a good one. Mine owners and managers showed little sympathy for the coal miners and being the company owned the town, the miner’s wages all went back into the company.

Colorado has a longstanding past of providing the nation with the needed coal, oil, gas and other "energy" supplies, while providing jobs along with wealth in abundance through boom and bust fashion. These industries show a trend of bringing in a positive flood of employees along with a helpful economic boost; only soon to be followed by an overwhelming loss of jobs and confusion. Lee H. Scamehorn, in High Altitude Energy: A History of Fossil Fuels in Colorado, portrayed one boom and bust situation Colorado’s coal industry experienced.

The residents did not take this well as it eventually led to the creation of Citizens Opposed to PCB Ash, or COPA. The citizens were not opposed to the ‘cleanup’ but rather how they intended to resolve the PCB issue which was to burn the PCBs, which would release an abundance of toxic chemicals into the environment, and possibly even worsening the situation. In the early 1990s opponents of this method convinced the Indiana Assembly to pass certain emission benchmarks that the incinerators could not oblige by. Now as to why there was opposition to this contamination, several Westinghouse employees have 100 times higher level of PCB in their blood than the average U.S. public according to Greene (Greene, n.d.). As well as residents stated to have many health issues such as birth defects and miscarriages. For the most part the opposition towards PCB contamination stems from the several health concerns and pollution caused by PCB

Following the Dan River coal ash spill, revelations that coal ash pollution has contaminated rivers, lakes, streams and drinking water resulted in an unprecedented public demand for legislative action. Duke Energy produces an estimated 1.2 million tons of coal ash a year in North Carolina. Currently, all coal ash sites have groundwater contamination and nearly all are releasing contaminants into rivers, lakes or reservoirs. The Coal Ash Management Act of 2014 was spurred by the Dan River disaster. In February 2014, approximately 39,000 tons of coal ash and 24 million gallons of wastewater laden with toxic heavy metals were discharged into the Dan River from a broken stormwater pipe beneath an unlined Duke Energy coal ash pit. Coal ash has

The environment is negatively affected be the burning of fossil fuels. The affects of the gases contribute to global warming, along with acid rain and polluted air. This pollution cuts short an estimated 30,000 American lives according to the Clean Air Task Force (Rich). The United States must stop using fossil fuels because the gases produce harm the environment we live causing harm to come all the citizens. “The future of energy production will

Using wind turbines has helped put the UK on track to achieve deriving 20% of its energy needs from renewable sources

Air pollution is of pronounced concern in the media lately. Some of the effects of air pollution include the increase of carbon in the atmosphere which contributes to the global warming effect. The effects have been felt with record temperatures on the east coast and in the Midwestern United States this summer. One major contribution to the pollution is the use of coal to generate electricity. Approximately 50% of the power in the United States comes from coal fired electrical generation plants (UCSUSA, 2009). A typical 500 megawatt generation plant burns 1.4 million

These fossil fuels serve to be very beneficial for our use and need for energy. The accessibility of these energy sources are relatively abundant in our environment. These sources of energy, specifically crude oil for example, are found in abundance underground in certain areas. For example, while there is not huge oil sources underground everywhere, there are large rigs in certain areas of the world that supply an astronomical amount of crude oil for our use. Places such as Saudi Arabia and Canada have been the 2 largest providers of non-renewable oil for the US. Similarly, there are many places in the US that non-renewable resources like oil and coal have been tapped into. These oil rigs and coal mines are being used at a rate that some worry is not sustainable, or responsible. The oil rigs, in particular, produce a real economic boom as well as the benefit to fulfill our energy needs. For example, back when gasoline was 4 dollars a gallon, it

Fossil fuels are having great impacts toward nature such as global warming and greenhouse effect. Plus, the depletion of it contributes to the rising price of petroleum. Therefore, wind power rise as it is a source of clean, non-polluting renewable energy (Nash, 2008). This type of energy generation provides us with loads of benefits environmentally and economically.

Fossil fuels are essential to life on earth as we know it today. Our world would certainly be much different if it weren’t for such seemingly simple things such as coal, oil, and natural gas. These basic elements of life on earth may not seem like a major concern to some people until we put into perspective how they have shaped our world today. Civilizations have been built, economies have risen and crumbled, and even wars have been fought over these precious fossil fuels. However, these fossil fuels serve us in ways we may never truly appreciate, as long as we use them as recklessly as we do now. The major entity about fossil fuels is concerning their longevity and permanence in our world, and we all know, they will be around forever.