[MCN] From Mining News: Not much of a future in western coal

[Lance Olsen]

Mining News February 24 2016
Amid Struggles coal market, Less Fuel Worth Mining U.S.

Posted by admin | On 24 February,2016 (16 hours ago) | In Mining News
http://www.todayminingnews.com/2016/02/24/amid-struggles-coal-market-less-fuel-worth-mining-u-s/

Vast coal deposits hundreds of feet thick below 
the rolling hills of the northern plains once 
appeared almost limitless, fueling boasts that 
domestic reserves were sufficient to American 
power for centuries.

But an exhaustive analysis government says that 
at current prices and mining land rates the 
largest coal reserves, located along the 
Montana-Wyoming border, will be tapped in just a 
few decades.

The adoption by the US Geological Survey upends 
conventional wisdom on life for top-coal 
producing region of the nation, the Powder River 
Basin. It also reflects the changing economic 
realities for companies that extract affect the 
profits of the fuel rising commodities fall coal 
prices and political pressure grows over coal's 
contribution to climate change.

"You look at a forty-year life span, maximum, for 
Powder River coal," said USGS geologist Jon 
Haacke, one of the authors of the analysis.

Claims that the US had reserves sufficient to 
last as long as 250 years came from "vastly 
inflated" estimates how much coal could be mined, 
added Haacke. They are based on data put by the 
Energy Department United States, which for 
decades has made little distinction between coal 
reserves that could reasonably be won and which 
could not.

The perception of abundant coal began to shift in 
2008, when the USGS team released the first data 
that cast doubt on the life of US stocks.

Nevertheless claims that America was held the 
"Saudi Arabia of coal" in 2010 by President 
Barack Obama and continued in recent months by 
industry supporters. The Department of Energy 
states on its website that based on current 
mining rates, "estimated recoverable coal 
reserves would last about 261 years."

Belies the prospects both the USGS assessment and 
industry, recent changes in fortune. Mine 
production has fallen after many utilities 
switched from coal to cheaper natural gas. Two of 
the top three domestic coal companies, Arch Coal 
and Alpha Natural Resources, declared bankruptcy 
in the past 18 months.

Leslie Glustrom, an environmental activist from 
Boulder, Colorado, who has urged the Department 
of Energy to change how the line up untapped 
resources of the nation, said she believes the 
end of the Powder River Basin is even faster than 
the USGS study suggests come. And she said it has 
little to do with a "war on coal" that 
Republicans often accuse the Obama administration 
of conducting.

"This is not a political problem. It is a geological problem," Glustrom said.

In Wyoming, which produces about 40 percent of 
the coal in the nation, State Lands Director 
Bridget Hill said she had no reason to dispute 
the USGS findings, but found no cause for alarm. 
Highlighting global demand could rebound, she 
said. Proposed coal ports now come to a halt on 
the West Coast could get built. And could make 
coal competitive again an increase in oil and gas 
prices.

"The economy may be different from what we know now," Hill said.

It's been four decades since the low sulfur 
content was first Powder River Basin coal the 
fuel of choice among electricity companies needed 
to cut their sulfur dioxide pollution. Sprawling 
strip mines in the region have been removed more 
than 11 billion tons of coal, the equivalent of 
95 million loaded rail cars.

To gauge how much coal remains the USGS 
researchers since 2004 have removed deep drilled 
30,000 holes analyzed in the earth's geology 
minerals. The data showed bury almost 1.1 billion 
tons of coal over the 20,000 square mile Powder 
River Basin. Of that, only 162 billion tons in 
coal seams considered thick enough and close 
enough to the surface to make them extract 
worthwhile.

The amount even more drastically decreases when 
the quality of the coal is calculated and 
compared with the current prices. When the USGS 
data before it was written first, in 2013, Powder 
River Basin coal was selling for $ 10.90 per 
tonne, resulting in approximately 23 billion tons 
is designated as economically-recoverable.

With coal prices down to $ 9.55 per ton, the 
estimated reserve has dropped to only 16 billion 
tons, said Haacke. That's equivalent to 40 years 
at the current production rate of 400 million 
tonnes annually in the basin of 16 mines in 
Wyoming and Montana.

source: 
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2016/02/23/amid-coal-market-struggles-less-fuel-worth-mining-in-u-s/

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"  Š organisms have a physiological response to 
temperature, and these responses have important 
consequences Š. biological rates and times (e.g. 
metabolic rate, growth, reproduction, mortality 
and activity) vary with temperature.

Anthony I. Dell, Samraat Pawar and Van M. Savage. 
Temperature dependence of trophic interactions 
are driven by asymmetry of species responses and 
foraging strategy. Journal of Animal Ecology 2013
===========================================================
"All organisms live within a limited range of 
body temperatures, due to optimized structural 
and kinetic coordination of molecular, cellular, 
and systemic processes. Functional constraints 
result at temperature extremes. Increasing 
complexity causes narrower thermal windows for 
whole-organism functions than for cells and 
molecules, and for animals and plants than for 
unicellular organisms (8). Direct effects of 
climatic warming can be understood through fatal 
decrements in an organism's performance in 
growth, reproduction, foraging, immune 
competence, behaviors and competitiveness. 
Performance in animals is supported by aerobic 
scope, the increase in oxygen consumption rate 
from resting to maximal (9). Performance falls 
below its optimum during cooling and warming. At 
both upper and lower pejus temperatures, 
performance decrements result as the limiting 
capacity for oxygen supply causes hypoxemia (4, 
8) (see the figure, left). Beyond low and high 
critical temperatures, only a passive, anaerobic 
existence is possible."

Hans O. Pörtner and Anthony P. Farrell. 
Physiology and Climate Change. SCIENCE 31 OCTOBER 
2008	VOL 322
===============================================================
"Between 1C and 2C increases in global mean 
temperatures most species, ecosystems and 
landscapes will be impacted and adaptive capacity 
will become limited. With the already ongoing 
high rate of climate change, the decline in 
biodiversity will therefore accelerate and 
simultaneously many ecosystem services will 
become less abundant."

Rik Leemans and Bas Eickhout. Another reason for 
concern: regional and global impacts on 
ecosystems for different levels of climate 
change. Global Environmental Change 14 (2004) 
219-228
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