Coal in Central Appalachia

Coal has played a major role in the history of Central Appalachia, and is still a strong presence in the region today. The conversation about transition is destined to include talking about coal's future in the region and in our national energy mix. Central Appalachia needs expanded, effective efforts to diversify our economy and our energy sources in order to build a stronger, cleaner and more prosperous future in central Appalachia. These resources help inform our understanding of coal's past, present, and possible future impacts on the region's economy, environmental and human health, and jobs.

Economics

• Boettner, Ted, Evan Hansen and Rory McIlmoil. "The Impact of Coal on the Tennessee State Budget" (June 2010): http://www.downstreamstrategies.com/Documents/reports_publication/DownstreamStrategies-coalTN.pdf

• Boettner, Ted, Evan Hansen and Rory McIlmoil. "The Impact of Coal on the West Virginia State Budget" (June 2010): "The Impact of Coal on the West Virginia State Budget"

• Busse, Meghan R., Nathaniel O. Keohane, “Market Effects of Environmental Regulation: Coal, Railroads, and the 1990 Clean Air Act” (September 2004): http://ssrn.com/abstract=593449

• Greenpeace, “The True Cost of Coal” (December 2008): http://www.greenpeace.org/raw/content/international/press/reports/true-cost-coal.pdf

• Hawkins, David and George Peridas.  “No Time Like the Present: NRDC’s Response to MIT’s Future of Coal Report” (March 2007): http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/coal/mit.pdf

• MACED,  “The Impact of Coal on the Kentucky State Budget” (June 2009): http://www.maced.org/coal/

• MACED, “The Economics of Coal in Kentucky and Future Prospects” (June 2009): http://www.maced.org/coal/intro.htm

• McIlmoil, Rory and Evan Hansen. "The Decline of Central Appalachian Coal and the Need for Economic Diversification" (2010): http://downstreamstrategies.com/Documents/reports_publication/Downstream Strategies-DeclineOfCentralAppalachianCoal-FINAL-1-19-10.pdf

• MIT, “The Future of Coal” (2007): http://web.mit.edu/coal/

• Napoleon, A. and Schlissel, D., “Economic Impacts of Restricting Mountaintop/Valley Fill Coal Mining in Central Appalachia” (August 2009): http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/factsheets.aspx

• National Research Council, “Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use” (October 2009): http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12794

• Sanzillo, Tom. “The Right Decision for Changing Times: How East Kentucky Power Cooperative Ratepayers Benefit from Canceling Plans for a New Coal Burning Power Plant In Clark County” (April 2009): http://kentucky.sierraclub.org/Resources/Environmental_Research/RightDecision/FullReport.pdf

• Synapse Energy Economics, Inc, “Don’t Get Burned: The Risks of Investing in New-Coal Fired Generating Facilities” (2008): http://www.iccr.org/news/press_releases/pdf%20files/DontGetBurned08.pdf

Environment

• Clean Air Task Force, “Cradle to Grave: The Environmental Impacts from Coal” (June 2001): http://www.catf.us/publications/reports/Cradle_to_Grave.pdf

• The Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice, “Coming Clean:  What the EPA Knows About the Dangers of Coal Ash: A Summary of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s 2007 Human and Ecological Risk Assessment of Coal Combustion Wastes” (May 2009): http://www.earthjustice.org/library/reports/final-coming-clean-ejeip-report-20090507.pdf

• Kolker, A., Engle, M., Stracher et al., “Emissions from coal fires and their impact on the environment: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet” (2009): http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2009/3084/

• Pond, Gregory J., Passmore, Margaret E., Borsuk, Frank A., et al, “Downstream Effects of Mountaintop Coal Mining: Comparing Biological Conditions Using Family- And Genus-Level Macroinvertebrate Bioassessment Tools” (July 2008): http://www.epa.gov/region3/mtntop/pdf/downstreameffects.pdf

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency: “Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on Mountaintop Mining/Valley Fills in Appalachia” (2005): http://www.epa.gov/region03/mtntop/eis2005.htm

• Wigginton, Andrew, Jay Mitchell, Ginger Evansc and Stephanie McSpirit.  “Assessing the Impacts of Coal Waste on Residential Wells in the Appalachian Region of the Big Sandy Watershed, Kentucky and West Virginia: An Exploratory Investigation” (September 2008): http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.3101/1098-7096-69.2.152?journalCode=kya

Health

• Clean Air Task Force, “Death, Disease & Dirty Power: Mortality and Health Damage Due to Air Pollution from Power Plants” (October 2000): http://www.catf.us/resources/publications/view/24

• Clean Air Task Force, “Power Plant Emissions: Particulate Matter-Related Health Damages and the Benefits of Alternative Emission Reduction Scenarios” (June 2004): http://www.catf.us/publications/reports/Power_Plant_Emissions.pdf

• Deck, Leland, “Particulate-Related Health Impacts of Emissions in 2001 from 41 Major US Power Plants” (November 2002): http://www.abtassociates.com/reports/ES-Abt_41_power_plant_report_Nov19.pdf

• Hendryx, M., “Mortality Rates in Appalachian Coal Mining Counties: 24 Years Behind the Nation” (2008): http://www.sludgesafety.org/health/Mortality_Coal.pdf

• Hendryx, M. and M. Ahern, “Mortality in Appalachian Coal Mining Regions: The Value of Statistical Life Lost” (July 2009): http://wvgazette.com/static/coal%20tattoo/Mortality%20AppCoalRegions.pdf
• Hendryx, M. and M. Ahern, “Relations Between Health Indicators and Residential Proximity to Coal Mining in West Virginia” (February 2008): http://ajph.aphapublications.org/cgi/reprint/AJPH.2007.113472v1
• Hendryx, M., K. O’Donnell, and K. Horn, “Lung Cancer Mortality Is Elevated in Coal Mining Areas of Appalachia” (2008): http://www.rri.wvu.edu/pdffiles/wp2008-1.pdf

• Hendryx, Michael.  “Mortality from heart, respiratory, and kidney disease in coal mining areas of Appalachia” (May 2008): http://www.springerlink.com/content/7n75225tx529nr71/fulltext.pdf ($ req'd)

• Lockwood, Alan H., Kristen Welker-Hood, Molly Rauch, Barbara Gottleib, “Coal’s Assault on Human Health” (November 2009): http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/psr-coal-fullreport.pdf

• Penney, Sarah, Jacob Bell and John Balbus, “Estimating the Health Impacts of Coal-Fired Power Plants Receiving International Financing” (2009):  http://www.edf.org/documents/9553_coal-plants-health-impacts.pdf

• Trasande, Leonardo, Philip J. Landrigan and Clyde Schechter, “Public Health and Economic Consequences of Methyl Mercury Toxicity to the Developing Brain” (May 2005): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1257552/pdf/ehp0113-000590.pdf

Coal Resources

• Milici, Robert C. and Kristin O. Dennen, “Chapter H of the National Coal Resource Assessment Overview: Production and Depletion of Appalachian and Illinois Basin Coal Resources” (2009): http://pubs.usgs.gov/pp/1625f/downloads/ChapterH.pdf

• Lyons, P.C., “Coalbed methane potential in the Appalachian states of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee” (1996): http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1996/of96-735/

• Rohrbacher, T.J., Luppens, J.A. et al, “An External Peer Review of the U.S. Geological Survey Energy Resource Program's Economically Recoverable Coal Resource Assessment Methodology” (2005): http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1076/

• United States Geological Survey, “Coal Resource Assessments in the Northern and Central Appalachian Coal Region” (November 1999): http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs115-99/fs115-99.html

Climate Change and Energy

• Freese, Barbara, Steve Clemmer, and Alan Nogee, “Coal Power in a Warming World: A Sensible Transition to Cleaner Energy Options” (October 2008): http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/clean_energy/Coal-power-in-a-warming-world.pdf

• Sierra Club, “The Dirty Truth About Coal: Why Yesterday’s Technology Should Not Be Part of Tomorrow’s Energy Future” (2007): http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/downloads/coalreport.pdf

• Elcock, D. and N.L Ranek, “Coal Combustion Waste Management at Landfills and Surface Impoundments, 1994-2004” (2006): http://www.ead.anl.gov/pub/doc/coal_waste_report.pdf

New Coal Technology

• Department of Energy Clean Coal Technology and the Clean Coal Power Initiative: http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/cleancoal/

• Department of Energy, FutureGen Clean Coal Project: http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystems/futuregen/

• Government Accountability Office, “Federal Actions Will Greatly Affect the Viability of Carbon Capture and Storage As a Key Mitigation Option” (September 2008): http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d081080.pdf

• National Energy Technology Laboratory, Carbon Capture and Storage Database: http://www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/carbon_seq/database/index.html

Government Agencies

• U.S Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration: http://www.eia.doe.gov/fuelcoal.html

• U.S. Department of Labor, Mine Health and Safety Administration: http://www.msha.gov/

• U.S. Geological Survey Energy Resources Program: http://energy.usgs.gov/coal.html

• U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement: http://www.osmre.gov/

• Kentucky Department of Natural Resources: http://www.dnr.ky.gov/

• West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Mining and Reclamation: http://www.wvdep.org/item.cfm?ssid=9

Industry Perspective

• Kentucky Coal Association, “Kentucky Coal Facts”: http://www.coaleducation.org/Ky_Coal_Facts/default.htm

• West Virginia Coal Association: http://www.wvcoal.com/

Additional Resources on Coal

• Source Watch’s Coal Swarm: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Coal_Studies

• Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign: http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/

Groups Working on Coal in Central Appalachia

• Alliance for Appalachia: http://www.theallianceforappalachia.org/

• Appalachian Citizens Law Center: www.appalachianlawcenter.org

• Center for Coalfield Justice: http://www.coalfieldjustice.org/index.htm

• Coal River Mountain Watch: http://www.crmw.net/

• Counter Coalture Coalition: http://www.countercoalture.org/

• I Love Mountains: http://ilovemountains.org/index.php

• Kentuckians for the Commonwealth: http://www.kftc.org/

• Kentucky Environmental Foundation: http://kyenvironmentalfoundation.org/

• Mountain Association for Community Economic Development http://maced.org/

• Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition: www.ohvec.org

• Rural Action: http://www.ruralaction.org/

• Sierra Club, Cumberland Chapter: http://kentucky.sierraclub.org/

• Sierra Club, West Virginia Chapter: http://westvirginia.sierraclub.org/index.html

• Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (formerly, Save Our Cumberland Mountains): www.socm.org

• Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards: www.samsva.org

• SouthWings: www.southwings.org

• West Virginia Highlands Conservancy: www.wvhighlands.org