Economic And Public Health Benefits Of Coal

Humans have been relying on coal as an energy source for hundreds of years. Coal may be an inexpensive source of energy, but comes at the price of harming the environment. Critics of this industry say we should total abandon the use of coal because of its negative impacts and supports say that its economic impacts outweigh its environmental impacts. A solution to this issue is to find the common ground between these two sides and still use coal as an energy source, but put regulations on coal mining and burning and to start using alternative energy sources such as renewable energy that have less of a carbon footprint. To find a balance between these two sides we must evaluate them through the lens of environmental and economic literacy. To
discontinue using coal would drastically hurt the world’s economy due to the fact that coal mining and burning creates a tremendous amount of jobs and that billions of people rely on coal as a cheap source of energy.
However, the coal industry produces a good majority of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, creates pollution in water ways, destroys habits, and coal mining creates many health hazards for humans and animals. Strict regulation on the coal industry will help reduce the environmental effects and help reduce its effect on human health. Implementing alternative energy sources such as renewable energy will have environmental benefits, but we need to also take advantage of the valuable resource that coal is. A reason our society has relied so heavily on coal as a source of energy is because of its economic benefits. A statement from the “Economic and Public Health Benefits of Coal-Bases Energy” by Eugene M. Trisko says, “annual benefit of coal use at currently projected levels is estimated at more than $1
trillion in gross domestic product (GDP), $360 billion in additional household income and nearly 7 million jobs” (1). Countries with an abundance of coal resources are able to sell their product to other countries providing a cheap source of power to the whole world. This trillion-dollar industry effects local economies around the world by providing jobs to millions of individuals. Reducing the use of coal or completely switch to alternative energy sources could possibly have a drastic impact on our world’s economy because it would eliminate millions of jobs, cause people’s energy bills to rise, and effect global trade. Another benefit of the coal industry is the lack of monopolization coal. In the article “Decision Making on Most Economical Coal for Coal-Fired Power Plants Under Fluctuating Coal Prices” by Houzhang Tan et al, says, “to ensure the large quantity of the coal required, large power plants have to purchase coals from as many as 20 to 30 different small coal mines” (274). The disperse of coal suppliers allows for many companies to have opportunities instead of a couple giant companies controlling the markets. This allows for companies in numerous areas to create jobs for people and have an impact on local economies. The coal industry has too big of an effect on the global economy to eliminate the use of it, however, if we implement regulations on this industry we can reap the economic benefits of coal at the same time as protecting the environment. Applying regulations to the coal industry will allow for the continual use of coal and help reduce pollution caused by coal mining and coal fired power plants. The coal mining industry creates numerous environmental and health hazards such as air pollution, toxic waste, land usage, noise pollution, and hazardous working conditions. An example of how harmful coal mining is on our environment comes from the article “King Coal” by The Editorial, where they say, “Debris dumped from the former mountain tops has buried valleys and more than 1,000 miles of streams and waterways” (5). A popular type of coal mining is mountain top removal. In this type of mining, you explode the tops of mountains in search of coal deep within the mountain side. This tactic is very useful when in need of large amounts of coal, however, it causes tons of environmental pollutants to get into local environment. Cases studies like this one prove why we need to apply more strict regulations on coal mining. A quote from Bryan Walsh in the article “The War on Coal”, explains the benefits of creating and applying regulations on the coal industry, “Those regulations will provide tangible benefits for air quality and health; the new cross-state-border rule alone will prevent an estimated 34,000 premature deaths a year” (1). He also says that the coal industry produces about one third of the U.S. carbon dioxide emissions. Yes, these regulations will cost the industry a good amount of money, but it will prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths a year. Not only will the reduced carbon emissions help people, it will have an impact on planet’s atmosphere. This one regulation created by the EPA had this big of impact, more regulations will make this industry much safer and cleaner. An example on why we need more regulation on the coal industry also comes from the article “The War on Coal” were it states, “estimated that toxic emissions from the Fisk plant alone are responsible for 15 premature deaths a year and 200 hospitalizations” (Walsh, page 1). In one small city, the burning of coal has this big of impact on human’s health. This is a small coal-fired power plant, bigger plants would have an even bigger impact on the local environment. Regulating how the waste created by these coal-fired power plants is disposed would allow for cleaner and safer local environments and would still allow these plants to continue creating energy. Regulations on the coal industry are the short-term solution for reducing pollution caused by coal, but the long-term solution for this issue is to implement alternative energy source alongside of coal. Coal is a cheap reliable source of energy, but it produces lots of pollutants which is why we need to start using more renewable energy sources.
Renewable energy sources such as wind energy, biomass, water energy and solar energy are sources of energy that produces a microscopic amount of pollution compared to fossil fuels such as coal. The only downside to these energy sources is the cost. In the article, “The Importance of Using Renewable Energy in the Form of Biomass” by Gageanu et al, they say, “The transition towards renewable energy systems seems more and more possible as their costs decreases while the price of oil and natural gas continues to fluctuate” (159). The cost of these sources of energy are why we cannot discontinue using coal, but as the cost of these sources goes down we can start relying on them more. Also in the article, Gageanu et al, say “The potential of renewable energy sources is huge, because these sources can surpass many times the global demand for energy” (159). Eventually, fuels such as oil and coal will run out so we need to work more on discovering how to reduce the cost of these products to allow for energy that is safe, clean, and inexpensive. By slowly relying more on renewable energy we can still use coal, but also start to reduce our environmental impact caused by using fossil fuels as energy
sources. The coal industry has a massive global effect on not only the economy, but the environment as well. The coal industry is a trillion-dollar industry that provides jobs to millions of people around the world. It also is one of the world’s biggest contributors to global pollution. Coal mining and burning causes pollution and health hazards to humans and animals around the world. The issue of coal having a major impact on our environment, but also playing a major role in the global economy can be fixed by finding the middle ground between the two opposing sides. We need to continue using coal as an energy source because of how little it cost and how big of an impact the industry has on the world. However, we need to regulate coal mining and burning to limit its harmful effects on the environment and start to rely more on alternative energy sources such as renewable energy as the cost continues to decline.