Newton’s Cradle

By Jason Hayes, ACC Communications Director and Editor, American Coal

If you look at the cover of this magazine you see a Newton’s Cradle; a gadget that does more than just look cool on a manager’s desk. This item was developed to demonstrate the scientific principle of conservation of momentum and energy.

While I’m sure that most have seen a Newton’s Cradle before, for those who haven’t, when you lift and release one of the balls in the group, it will fall back and strike the others. The force from the first ball is transmitted through the other balls, pushing the last one up and away. That ball then falls back and the process is repeated, back and forth, back and forth.

This same type of pendulum action is mirrored in the energy industry. Policy, public support, and regulation will sometimes favor the development and use of coal and, other times, will move against it.

American Coal readers will already know that the regulatory and political environment surrounding coal is at the high point of the “moving against” arc in the pendulum swing and we can’t be completely sure how long the ball will hover there.

However, we do know that coal currently provides us with abundant, affordable, and clean energy from our existing generation stock. We enjoy an immediate response when we flick a switch; we enjoy the low prices that coal-fueled electricity provides; over the past thirty-plus years we have enjoyed increasingly clean air due to the billions invested in clean coal technologies. However, changing policy and regulation is bringing that comfort level into sharp visual relief. As I have written in several Coalblog posts (www.coalblog.org), utilities and regulators around the country are being forced to pass the added costs of renewable portfolio standards and “marginal” coal plant closures on to their customers.

In the face of the impending EPA “train wreck,” utilities in West Virginia are closing coal-fueled plants, meaning tens of millions in wages, payroll and property taxes will be lost at the same time as electricity rates spike by 10 to 15 percent. Illinois utilities are forecasting that plant closures brought on by strict new environmental regulations will begin to force electricity bills up by 40 to 60 percent as early as 2014. Others states – Arizona, California, and Kentucky – along with energy experts and elected officials around the country are predicting similar rate increases.

As a result of our previous investments in generation plants, we enjoy what environmental philosopher and researcher Roderick Nash called the “full stomach phenomenon.” With our increasingly clean environment, wealth, and affordable energy, we have the freedom to focus heavily on the minutest details of environmental wellness. In contrast, those living in developing or declining societies are concerned with basic necessities like providing food and electricity for their citizens.

Unfortunately, with the rushed imposition of expensive new regulations we are chipping away at the foundation of our well-being. We are witnessing the inevitable contraction of energy supply and the rising costs associated with decades of misinformation and political action from anti-coal groups. As we abandon the engine that powered our economic growth, we turn our backs on the ability to enjoy our “full stomachs.”

Things have been difficult for coal over the past few years, but we’re not alone. To steal a phrase from our President, we’re just part of the “shared sacrifice” plan. Things have been tough for much of the energy industry. The same environmental groups and regulators attacked nuclear energy for decades; they have vilified “big oil” for just as long, and now that they see the coal industry planning to shutter plants and cut back on mining plans, they are turning their attention to shale gas producers.