- ISBN13: 9780618872244
- Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
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Product Description
Long dismissed as a relic of a bygone era, coal is back — with a vengence. Coal is one of the nation’s biggest and most influential industries — Big Coal provides more than half the electricity consumed by Americans today — and its dominance is growing, driven by rising oil prices and calls for energy independence. Is coal the solution to America’s energy problems?
On close examination, the glowing promise of coal quickly turns to ash. Coal mining remain… More >>
Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future
Tags: ash, coal mining, dirty secret, dominance, electricity, energy future, energy independence, energy problems, relic, rising oil prices
#1 by J. A Magill on June 26, 2010 - 11:44 pm
Goodell’s thoughtful work serves as an important reminder to Americans of the dangers that come with cheap electricity. Yet the author takes his analysis one step further, demonstrating how coal’s cheap price masks its many hidden costs, lung disease, environmental destruction, and global warming. Coal exists in a highly flawed marketplace, where none of these costs are included in the price paid by the consumer, a market failure that the coal industry gladly supports in order to avoid any reasonable regulator regime. Moreover, coal serves as a great case study of how the market place does not respond unless pushed to tertiary effects as the coal industry continues to build new plants that lack the gasification technology that eliminates most of the pollutants at a cost increase of 20-25%.
The author does fudge a bit when describing the economic bonanza that might come from government imposed demands for clean technology. That is not to say that I believe he is wrong, green industry is indeed booming and China and India will soon need to adopt it or suffer grave social dislocation and health costs resulting from pollution. However, Goodell could have done a better job offering data on this area.
In any event, energy remains perhaps the key issue of the 21st century. This author’s aditton to the debate provides welcomed and easily digestible insights.
Rating: 5 / 5
#2 by Jean E. Pouliot on June 27, 2010 - 2:23 am
Right from the start, when author Jeff Goodell discusses daily life around a coal extraction site in Wyoming, “Big Coal” is a captivating look at a subject that is seemingly as ordinary…as a lump of coal. Goodell knows his subject. He has witnessed coal mining operations in West Virginia, Wyoming and China. He has interviewed government officials, regulators, environmentalists, mine operators and the miners themselves. He has witnessed the devastation of strip mining and spoken to people whose land is literally washing away from them. He has spoken to those whose livelihoods are dependent on coal, and who even get a thrill from pitting their lives against Mother Nature. He has detonated explosives that exposed coal seams, accompanied inspectors worriedly checking excavation sites for potentially-fatal weak spots and ridden the rails with those who transport coal across the country.
“Big Coal” details the thrills and dangers of mining, an occupation that has cost 100,000 lives since 1900. It discusses the geological forces that laid down the coal beds, the differences between grades of coal like bituminous and anthracite and the historical personalities that bequeathed us our power system. He tackles tough issues — like the efforts to control their entry of coal by-products mercury and sulfur into the environment. He is not afraid to tell it like it is. To the current administration’s contention that there are 250 years of coal in the ground (250 million years in the words of George W. Bush), Goodell counters with studies that show that fewer than 20 years’ worth of that coal that is *economically* extractable. Goodell analyzes the devastating impact of burning carbon-rich coal on the global environment. CO2 being a greenhouse gas with enormous impact on climactic warming trends. Goodell lays out a compelling case for the folly of building more and more plants that belch more of the stuff into the atmosphere. Goodell details the way Big Coal ignores and fights this long range problem for short-term profit. Most depressingly, he relates the political enablers that allow Big Coal to persuade Americans that polluting their streams and wrecking their children’s environment is good for them. He discusses the way foreign juggernauts like China and India are beginning to repeat America’s coal-centered mistakes in their quest to become world economic leaders, and the decreasing leverage that a coal-hungry America has to counter this threat.
The last third of the book was the hardest to read. It described the political expediency and pure greed that induces the coal lobby and US politicians to ignore, minimize and paper over the true costs of burning coal. Easy, low-cost solutions that can reduce coal’s effect on the environment are put off as long as possible so coal execs can get a few more years of profits from the black rock. The public is misled to keep shareholders happy and politicians in office. This section caused me to put the book down out of frustration with our greed-drive political system.
But do not despair. “Big Coal” lays out the entire complex picture of coal and the industry required to harvest and exploit it. The book is not an attempt to destroy the coal industry or to destroy America’s technological leadership. It is a clear-eyed and straightforward assessment of a difficult and complex reality. Reading the book will help you understand the many facets of the way that coal keeps the global economy running and that will (without adequate protections) land us in a world of hurt. Goodell’s even-handed and comprehensive appraisal of the issues that fuel the coal controversy may make him seem biased in the eyes of some. And he is biased, if by this one means that he values clean air and land, a future free of climate change and live miners living to healthy old age with their families. But he is always fully truthful.
“Big Coal” will help you understand the issues — technological, political, moral and economical– to be tied to getting our power from coal. The Black Rock employs tens of thousands, allows millions to live in luxury and enables our nation’s technological success. Yet it poisons our children, warms our planet and takes or shortens the lives of hundreds of thousands. I appreciated “Big Coal” for its ability to lay out the facts without the smog of industry and political obfuscation that usually accompanies their telling. An excellent, quite readable and educational book.
Rating: 5 / 5
#3 by gojefferson on June 27, 2010 - 3:13 am
Goodell is an excellent writer, and the reporting contained in Big Coal could not be more timely. He has written the right book at the right time. The world of the coal industry is a bit like coal itself: it is buried–but not in the ground. Rather, it is covered by a thick layer of propaganda and public ignorance. Goodell unearths the unpleasant truths about coal mining, coal power, and the shady political game that both of these industries play. This is not so much a polemic, but simply a great piece of journalism. There are scores of fascinating personalities and memorable scenes. The book also achieves a remarkable overall synthesis. I could hardly put it down, and I think that if anyone was going to reveal the coal industry for what it is, Jeff Goodell was the one for the job.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Stephen J. Snyder on June 27, 2010 - 6:07 am
The dirty coal, anybody with any real environmental or history knowledge knows.
Beyond the secret meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney, though, Jeff Goodell details, at both the state and federal level, how Behemoth Coal works.
And, beyond just its opposition to the Kyoto Treaty or carbon caps, he also details how, in its lack of adaptability, the behemoth is also Dinosaur Coal, with both of these issues of huge importance for global warming and energy conservation.
At the same time, both in the U.S. and abroad, we see the human costs of mining coal, inhaling coal’s pollution and more.
And, here in the U.S., we see big coal’s biggest bedfellow besides electric utilities: the railroad companies BNSF and UP, whose stranglehold on Western coal needs regulation itself.
Rating: 5 / 5
#5 by Woodlandtrails on June 27, 2010 - 8:29 am
This book starts with “The Dig” describing in detail the actual mining of coal and what this does to the environment, homeowners around digs, how miners are treated and the transportation of coal (exploitation of the railroads/only thing good about this is the railroads kick the coal business in the butt when Big Coal is used to doing the kicking (to consumers/environmentalists/miners and the few politicians who aren’t in their pockets and actually care about enforcing pollution standards). The bad thing is higher prices for consumers held hostage by 2 bandits – the railroads and coal industry.
Next is “The Burn” about the politics of coal and the constant finagling of putting off pollution control standards and the corruptness of the EPA (government employees appointed to the EPA from the coal industry, wreck havoc, and return to the coal industry) and health of people especially young (ex. asthma/mercury). It addresses how the industry deals with mercury, heavy metals, air pollution, water pollution and destruction of the land (or not).
Last is The Heat” chapter which addresses global warming and what the electric (utility) companies are doing to “meet or not meet this formidable challenge”.
Why is ANY of this happening when there is a simple fix for most of it?
1) Ban anyone from working in the EPA who worked in the coal/energy industry (including as a lobbyist) in the last 10 years from being appointed/hired to the EPA. Ban anyone from working in the EPA if any of their immediate family works for Big Coal.
2) Ban anyone currently working for the EPA from working in the coal industry (including as a lobbyist) for 10 years AFTER they leave the EPA and that includes their immediate family members. If whoever is hired to work in the EPA (biologist/teacher/MBA, physician, lawyer, plumber, nurse, etc) needs to understand a particularly complicated piece, he can ASK the Big Coal industry and others outside Big Coal for that specific answer.
3) QUIT relying on the present big coal/energy companies (throw in auto industry/gasoline here also) to come up with a solution to finding alternate energy sources. The blacksmith did NOT invent the automobile, travel agents did NOT invent [...] and the U.S. postal office did not invent e-mail.
4) The government should dig through their patent computer (use city (not government) librarians to do this and ensure the research/dig salary monies go directly into the city library fund and not the city coffers. The patent website is on-line so the librarian doesn’t even have to travel. ANY patent dealing with energy that hasn’t been ACTIVELY (define it so there is no wiggle room) worked on in 2 years, let this patent become public property and announce it on the internet. This will keep the energy companies who like the status quo from squelching new discoveries by just buying the patent. Change the U.S. patent law to make this so but also address the patent laws of other countries if they have any and have them change theirs also so the U.S. is not at a disadvantage. The whole world needs to solve this mess.
This book was a fantastic read because of its in-depth coverage of the entire problem. Although it addresses mostly the United States coal industry, China and India aren’t forgotten either although the author seems to think the U.S. should pay a higher price upfront by having to implement stricter pollution standards for us now and allow China and India more time to foul the air/water before they would fall under the same pollution guidelines.
Read this book. You will learn much but won’t sleep much. Sleep will evade you due to anger at the greed of the Big Coal industry, corruptness of politicians in bed with Big Coal, EPA nepotism, EPA turning its back on U.S. citizens whose lands and health are being destroyed by Big Coal (similar to asbestos) and even a little at yourself because you want to turn on your AC but at a cheap price. Guilt will eat at you for forgetting to turn off your TV when you went to bed or for even having 2 or 3 TVs and because want to forget about all this when you close this book but in the back of your mind you know it isn’t going away and it will get worse for you but especially for your children. Anger because we as citizens of the United States of America are complacent in allowing our government officials who are supposed to work for us (should be finding new ways to turn on our AC and make/enforce pollution standards) to instead be controlled by these Big Coal businesses whose only goal is to work for their stockholders. Anger because at local/state level all we can do is vote them out of office and guilt because we don’t vote or care to research who we are voting for. You won’t sleep because of worry over the health of our children from Big Coal pollutants which can be stopped/reduced but aren’t (even if you don’t believe in Global Warming and all those associated hazards, the air/land/water pollution and land stripping are still there) and finally worry over the condition of the U.S. and the world environment we will leaving our children and grandchildren once the mountains are stripped off, the land blown/dug up and the air/land/water fouled because the United States of America with all it’s strength is too weak to put it foot down on Big Coal (throw in gasoline here as well) and throw its weight and subsidies at the small inventors not working for the coal/energy industry in any way (think Edison/Wright Brothers) and don’t give the coal industry any of these subsidies because they will not work to make themselves obsolete but just try to reinvent the same wheel. I have faith in the individual person to find a solution not big business and not big government. When you read this book you will be filled with despair but also hope because it can be corrected if we want it to be. Sleeplessness will come because of fear of going the wrong way or not acting fast enough once the right way is found and it will be too late. The worst part is not knowing when too late is. Only God knows that.
Rating: 5 / 5