Coal is the world’s dirtiest source of energy. The U.S. currently uses coal for over half of our electricity, and coal accounts for one-third of our country's global warming emissions. And the dangers of coal don’t stop with climate change. Coal extraction is destroying mountains and poisoning communities in Appalachia. Burning coal causes asthma, heart disease, cancer, strokes and other illnesses. It also pollutes our water with toxic mercury and other hazardous chemicals.
Friends of the Earth has a proud history of fighting coal and its impacts that dates back over 40 years. A seven-year effort led by the Environmental Policy Institute and the Environmental Policy Center (which later joined Friends of the Earth) resulted in the enactment of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, the primary federal law that regulates the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States. This law requires the coal industry to protect valuable farmlands, streams and wetlands and to reclaim all surface mined land. If properly enforced, this law would be a major tool to protect citizens and communities from some of the worst impacts of coal mining.
The Tennessee Valley Authority disaster in Harriman, Tennessee focused the nation’s eye on the dangers of coal ash. In Harriman, 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic coal ash spewed into the surrounding communities when heavy rains caused a dam breach. More than a year later, cleanup has just begun. The Environmental Protection Agency is currently working to regulate coal ash for the first time and Friends of the Earth is advocating for strong, federally enforceable regulations that will help reduce the likelihood of another disaster like the one that struck Tennessee.
Mountaintop coal removal is one of the United States’s greatest ongoing environmental and human tragedies. Mining companies literally blast the tops off mountains to reach coal and then dump millions of tons of waste into valleys and streams below, destroying waterways and contaminating communities around the sites. The coal industry perpetuates this human health and environmental catastrophe all in pursuit of cutting costs. Mountaintop removal mining has already destroyed over 500 of the world's oldest mountains and more than 2,000 miles of streams, in addition to contaminating our nation's waters.
Friends of the Earth has endorsed Appalachia Rising, a mass mobilization that will occur in Washington, DC September 25-27, 2010 and call for an end to the devastating practice of mountaintop removal mining. Friends of the Earth will join thousands of Appalachian and national leaders, policymakers, coalfield residents and miners, concerned citizens, activists, mountain groups, environmental justice organizations, and Americans from coast to coast for a momentous, movement-building summit and call to action. Together, we will bring Appalachia's cry to our nation's capital: We must end mountaintop removal and transform the economies of Appalachia away from destructive mining practices and toward clean-energy jobs and a sustainable and healthy future. Click here to go to Appalachia Rising’s website.
The World Bank’s mission is to “eradicate global poverty and create sustainable development,” but its projects and policies have often led to the opposite result, with devastating consequences for the environment and human rights throughout the world. Friends of the Earth campaigns to stop the World Bank from funding dirty coal and other fossil fuel projects.
Friends of the Earth’s latest efforts have focused on the Eskom facility in South Africa. In April 2010, the World Bank approved a $3.75 billion loan that will help electricity company Eskom build the world's fourth-largest coal plant in South Africa, the 4800 MW Medupi plant. In addition to being highly polluting, this project is actually expected to decrease access to electricity for South Africa's poorest citizens as a result of steep rate hikes for household customers that Eskom plans to implement to help pay for the plant and repay the World Bank.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank (Exim) is a government agency that provides financial support for U.S. companies doing business abroad. In 2002, Friends of the Earth filed a groundbreaking climate lawsuit against Exim for failing to take climate change impacts into account in its lending operations. Since then, Exim developed a carbon policy that requires it to assess the greenhouse gas emissions of all coal-fired plants that apply for funding and empowers Exim to reject applications for having heavy carbon footprints.
Despite this new policy, Exim appears to be on a coal power binge: Several coal projects are now under consideration, including the Kusile coalfired power project in South Africa. In June 2010, the Exim bank board rejected a loan application for one of the world’s largest single sources of carbon dioxide, the Sasan coal fired Ultra Mega Power and Mine Project in India. However, under pressure from the White House and some members of Congress, the board reversed its decision, creating an alarming precedent in the first major test of the agency’s new carbon policy.
The Office of Surface Mining Enforcement and Reclamation (OSMRE) is part of the Department of the Interior and is responsible for implementing the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA). This law was signed by President Carter to reduce the environmental impacts of coal mining. Unfortunately, it has not been fully enforced since it was put into place.
President Obama had the opportunity to signify a commitment to enforcing mining regulations in choosing a new director for the Office of Surface Mining Enforcement and Reclamation. Friends of the Earth was disheartened when he announced his nominee would be Joseph Pizarchik, who was cozy with the coal industry as a state-level official in Pennsylvania. After hearing from grassroots coal activists in Pennsylvania like the Citizen’s Coal Council, Friends of the Earth lobbied Congress to oppose Mr. Pizarchik’s nomination. While the nomination eventually went through, Friends of the Earth’s efforts slowed the nomination and shined a spotlight on the Office of Surface Mining. Friends of the Earth is dedicated to monitoring the agency and fighting to ensure the SMCRA is fully implemented.
Despite the environmental and human health impacts of mining and burning coal, our federal government continues to subsidize this dirty energy source. In the report Green Scissors 2010, Friends and the Earth and Taxpayers for Common Sense identified over $19 billion in subsidies for coal over the next five years that should be eliminated from the federal budget. The newest subsidy for coal is Build America Bonds, a program which has already funded over $1 billion in new coal plant construction since its creation in 2008.
Carbon capture and sequestration is an unproven and expensive technology that does nothing to eliminate the other environmental and human health impacts of coal mining. Friends of the Earth works to oppose all government support of carbon capture and sequestration. Instead of investing billions of dollars in futile attempts to “clean up” the coal industry around the edges we should be investing our money in real solutions like truly sustainable and clean energy. Friends of the Earth Denmark released a report in 2010 showing that the potential of CCS to reduce climate-warming emissions from coal is insignificant and concluding that CCS has no place in a sustainable energy future.
Liquid coal is the dirtiest way to fuel a car. It produces twice the greenhouse gas emissions of conventional oil, requires as much as ten gallons of water for every gallon of gasoline produced, and comes with all of the other environmental and human health impacts of mining and burning coal. Despite the dirty nature of this fuel, the coal industry is making a huge push to get government support for liquid coal. Friends of the Earth scored an important victory toward stopping liquid coal when Congress responded to our pressure and allowed a 50 cent per gallon subsidy for liquid coal to expire at the end of 2009.