Assessing the Costs and Benefits of King Coal

I have two distinct impressions of coal, many years apart.The first occurred during my childhood.I was in Patton, Pennsylvania, visiting my uncle (who, despite being one generation removed, was sixty years my senior).He recalled his earliest memory, in kindergarten, hearing sirens blowing and church bells ringing.The teacher left the classroom, and when she returned, white-faced and stricken, she told everyone to go straight home.Along the way, he saw all the men in town running uphill, toward the entrance of the mine.In 2016, more than half a lifetime later, I was on a ship traversing the harbor in Duluth, Minnesota.An official from a Class 1 railroad stood beside me as we watched coal being loaded into a lake boat.He described a recent marketing trip to Southern California.Utility executives offered little encouragement about the potential for additional freight traffic into the region, noted that they had locked in 30-year contracts for inexpensive natural gas, and capped the discussion with the simple statement that "coal is dead." 1 Well, not quite dead.Over the past century, coal has lost its status as the nation's leading source of energy, and, thankfully, air pollution and mining accidents have decreased as well.Yet coal remains an important commodity, and one that has become highly politicized.It has joined immigration, reproductive rights, firearms, and sexual identity on the list of topics that make the writing of history akin to walking through a minefield.When talking with individuals who claim that excessive environmental regulations are hindering growth and eliminating American jobs, and those who assert that the carbon economy will destroy the Earth, there should be little difficulty in discerning their party affiliations.