Some Sterling Returns from Coal Producers Mark Reclamation Act's Silver Anniversary

In the 25 years since passage of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 the coal industry has restored 1.9 million acres of land to productive use and last year provided Americans with energy equal to 10.9 million barrels a day of imported oil.

The restored land is an area larger than the state of Delaware and twice as large as Rhode Island. The energy in last year's coal production was greater than the combined energy content in our crude oil imports from OPEC plus our own domestic crude production, a total of 10.6 million barrels a day.

The achievements of the SMCRA era in reclamation and production highlight the underlying strength of America's coal resource that caused President Bush to take note of it in the National Energy Strategy.

This is the silver anniversary year for SMCRA, which applies to surface production and the surface effects of underground production. It requires production to proceed according to pre-approved plans that meet or exceed state and federal laws and regulations.

Careful attention is given the management and mitigation of affects on water and hydrologic resources during and after production. Like care is taken with soil stabilization and revegetation techniques. Land must be returned to productive use and as closely as possible to original characteristics.


FBI Complex in Clarksburg, West Virginia
is located on 986 acres of reclaimed land 		Reclamations serve as cropland, pasture, tree farms, wildlife parks, wetlands, recreation areas, and golf courses. They also have provided sites for residential, commercial and industrial development. One SMCRA site is even directly involved in the war on terror. The FBI's fingerprint processing center in Clarksburg, West Virginia, is built on a valley fill that resulted from coal production. In some mountainous areas, the only available level land is a result of modern production and reclamation practices.


Sheep on reclaimed area
Willow Creek

Under the act the industry also has paid $6.5 billion in fees into a special fund to restore historic sites from earlier in the century, the Abandoned Mine Lands Fund. The money is apportioned among the federal government, the states and Indian tribes with coal. AML work to date has reclaimed the equivalent of at least 180,000 acres. It includes almost 500 miles of streams and another 500 miles of remnant highwalls.

Few on hand when President Carter signed the act on a summer Wednesday morning 25 years ago on August 3rd would have ventured to predict the many successes of America's coal producers in responding to our nation's demand for more energy and improved environmental performance.

Since then, the coal industry has delivered achievements of the first order in protecting the environment during production, in improved safety and in reclamation.

Silver anniversary reclamation comparisons include:

  • Land reclaimed - 2,969 square miles;


  • Geographic equivalents - one-and-a-quarter times the land area of the state of Delaware, two-and-a-half times Rhode Island and 43 times the District of Columbia;


In the SMCRA era, coal production increased by 60 percent, consumption for electric generation more than doubled and the coal share of electric power rose from 46 percent to 50.9 percent in 2001.

By 2001, coal accounted for 32.5 percent of all homeland energy production, 40.4 percent of domestic fossil energy production and the majority share of electricity. Production of 1,121.3 million tons was comprised of 731 million tons surface production and 390 million tons underground. Most coal is used to generate electric power, about 981.5 million tons in 2001.


Production comparisons include:

  • Cumulative production from 1977 - 23.5 billion tons;
  • Cumulative oil equivalent - 86.8 billion barrels, almost four times the proved U.S. oil reserve of 22 billion;
  • Import equivalent - Oil at a 25-year average rate of 9.5 million barrels a day;
  • Power generation with coal - 1,913 billion kilowatt-hours in 2001;
  • Industrial-commercial potential - Enough power to support the employment of 123.4 million persons based on per-job averages of 15,500 kilowatt hours as derived from employment and power-use statistics;
  • National potential - Enough power for 141.9 million Americans in all activities of daily life at 13,475 kilowatt-hours per capita;
  • Domestic power equivalents - Almost 2.5 times U.S. nuclear generation, 3 times natural gas and 21 times all non-hydro renewables;
  • International equivalents - More than the combined production of Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom (1,817 billion kilowatt-hours);
  • And, the 2001 oil equivalent - At 10.9 million barrels, a little more than our total crude oil imports of 9.3 million barrels a day.

The SMCRA era sent other benefits pulsing through the economy and the nation - direct and indirect benefits, primary and secondary benefits.

Other highlights in production included:

  • The development of large, efficient mines both east and west of the Mississippi;
  • Emphasis on efficiency and economies of scale;
  • Threefold gains in average industry productivity;
  • In consequence, declining and always competitive prices for coal as a power fuel;
  • And, continuing development of improved technologies and methods in production and reclamation.

Parallel benefits included:

  • Improvements in worker safety and health;
  • Economic reduction of regulated pollutants;
  • A strong, ready response to demand for low-sulfur coal in connection with other federal law;
  • Stability in electric-power prices even as electricity demand rose;
  • Sufficient electric power to invite the onset of the electronic age;
  • And, more important, sufficient power to sustain economic growth as that age took hold and then took off.

 

These achievements underscore the reasons President Bush chose to emphasize technologies that strengthen the link between coal and electric power in his National Energy Strategy - advanced technologies that improve environmental protection while increasing secure energy supplies.

Growth in coal generation has provided most of the growth in the nation's power supply from 1977 to the present. In this time the demand for power grew by 1.6 trillion kilowatts while coal-based generation rose by more than 900 million kilowatts to account for 56.7 percent of growth. Coal also was a primary source of diversity when other forms faltered or fluctuated in availability or price.

America's recoverable coal reserve is 274 billion tons, which is as much as 95 percent of our fossil fuel reserves. It represents an electric-power reserve of at least 543 billion kilowatt-hours on secure standby for homeland needs, a 280-year supply at present efficiencies and rates of use.

There is no substitute for electric power in the economy. And there is no substitute for coal in electric power.