Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future – The Deadly Environmental Costs of Our National Addiction

by Jeff Goodell

As oil prices increase, Coal has effectively become the default fuel for electricity generation in the twenty-first century. Goodell debunks the faulty assumptions underlying coal's revival and shatters the myth of cheap coal energy.

In the tradition of Rachel Carson and Eric Schlosser, the veteran journalist Jeff Goodell examines the danger behind President George W. Bush's recent assertion that coal is America's "economic destiny."

Despite a devastating, century-long legacy that has claimed millions of lives and ravaged the environment, coal has become hot again -- and will likely get hotter. In this penetrating analysis, Goodell debunks the faulty assumptions underlying coal's revival and shatters the myth of cheap coal energy. In a compelling blend of hard-hitting investigative reporting, history, and industry assessment, Goodell illuminates the stark economic imperatives America faces and the collusion of business and politics -- what is meant by "big coal" -- that have set us on the dangerous course toward reliance on this energy source.

Few of us realize that even today we burn a lump of coal every time we flip on a switch. Coal already supplies more than half the energy needed to power our iPods, laptops, lights -- anything we use that consumes electricity. Our desire to find a homegrown alternative to Mideast oil, the rising cost of oil and natural gas, and the fossil fuel-friendly mood in Washington will soon push our coal consumption through the roof. Because we have failed to develop alternative energy sources, coal has effectively become the default fuel for the twenty-first century.

Genres: Nonfiction, Environment, History, Science, Economics, Business, Journalism

352 pages, Paperback

First published June 8, 2006

About the author

Jeff Goodell’s latest book is The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet. He is the author of six previous books, including The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World, which was a New York Times Critics Top Book of 2017. He has covered climate change for more than two decades at Rolling Stone and discussed climate and energy issues on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He is a Senior Fellow at the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center and a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow.

Reviews

[Tanja Berg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was written quite long ago, but it is still relevant. I did not know that the United States were so big on coal. I only know that Germany and Poland are still going strong with it. We get lessons in coal mining, environmental destruction, health problems and union busting. And the ones who have gotten very rich from the mining. The United States is owned and run by its oligarchs, unfortunately. Highly recommended!

[Tinea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good background information here, definitely a useful read, with old-time history, recent political/corporate history, and a good overview of labor, environmental, and toxic health effects of the coal life cycle from mining to burning.

However, after two thirds of the book carefully details all the reasons why the entire process of digging up and burning coal for electricity is fucked, the author caves in to pressure (was he paid off? the last few chapters come out of nowhere) and states that 0 emissions "clean" coal plants can be built today. This just isn't true-- I am doing community organizing in Southeast Ohio, a region where they're trying to build this kind of plant, and I can tell you from firsthand experience that IGCC, carbon sequestration, and undergound mining aren't clean or safe.

IGCC concentrates toxins in local water systems instead of dispersing them over a large region in the air. Underground (as opposed to mountain top removal) mining also threatens water and other health/environmental areas, as the coal still must be processed in prep plants that use over 60 toxic chemnicals to make the coal ready to burn. Carbon sequestration (an experimental technology still being experimented nearby where I'm working/living, that buries compressed carbon emissions deep underground) lubricates fault lines, and has the potential of breaking out into the atmosphere where locals could be asphyxiated, not to mention the labor issues of having miners underground in a region destabilized by potential seismic activity from sequestration. And don't count on sequestration being available large-scale anytime soon, either-- it would require massive construction of infrastructure (pipelines) to transport the carbon from power plants to areas where it's safe to sequester it.

Coal can't be cleaned, its toxins can only be concentrated. All coal has got to go.

[The Pfaeffle Journal (Diane) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was published in 2007 and not a thing that written about in this book has changed in the last eight years.  The coal industry has lied and cheated its way into our daily lives and there is not one thing we can do about it.

The power industry does not want to move away from coal because  it is cheap and easy.  Still yet we see how an industry is running the political discourse of how we generate power in this country.  With such political clout as the power companies have we will be a long time in moving away from coal-burning power plants.

I keep hearing that there is no reasonable replacement for fossil fuels but if the energy industry continues to fight for the things as they are we will never get ourselves away from fossil fuels.  The next time you see an ad from the energy industry about all they are doing to move toward renewable energy do not be fooled.This review was originally posted on THE PFAEFFLE JOURNAL

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I ususally do not write a "book report" type review, but I made an exception in this case.

Because in the three years it took the author to write this book, 72,000 people in the US died from the effects of coal burning power plants—more than all those who died of Aids, murder and overdoses combined.

I took notes and then compiled them into an essay called "Old King Coal is a Merry Old Soul."



China now, Pittsburgh then. In China, coal is piled in precious piles haphazardly throughout small villages. Coal dust coats every surface, including faces with patina of noxious black dust. 6,000 die each year across China trying to extract the black gold from the earth. Another 355,000 will die from pollution related diseases. In Jiamusi, an industrial city in the North, you cannot see across the street because of the noxious effluent.


In the US, we still use twenty pounds of coal per day per person for coal fueled electric generation, a $260 billion dollar a year industry. The power is needed to run the lap top I am using to write this and to listen to music on our I-pods, in addition to our microwaves, air conditioners and television sets. Without coal, there would be no Face Book, Yahoo, Google, Microsoft or Amazon. One half of all of California’s electricity comes from coal-fired power plants in Nevada and New Mexico. Pennsylvania gets 50% of its electricity from coal and China generates 70% of its electricity by burning coal. Plant Scherer in Atlanta burns 34,000 tons of coal each day—and this is just one power plant.

The first electric power plant went online on September 4, 1882 when Thomas Edison fired up a dynamo and generated the first electricity in New York City. It was dirty and loud. But everyone thought this was progress and electrical generation was here to stay; if people could find a use for it. Edison’s rival, Tesla wondered where all of the coal would come from. Edison, like many others, felt this was not something we would have to worry about for 50,000 years. JP Morgan was a financial backer of Edison and wanted to sell the means to generate electricity. But Edison did not want to lose control of his creation. Edison envisioned numerous small generators in every community to generate that community’s electrical needs. No one, however, wanted these loud dirty machines in their community. Besides, there were no appliances that used electricity. Where was the demand? Samuel Insull created that demand.

Samuel Insull immigrated to this country from England. He was an admirer of the man from Menlo Park. When he found out that the company in England he got a job with was the London agent for Edison, Insull worked his way up and was offered a job with Edison himself. Edison put Insull in charge of the power plant in Schenectady, NY. Insull built it up, expanding it from 200 to 6,000 workers in the space of 6 years. It was his business model, though, that was the revolutionary idea.

Insull perceived that power companies were “natural” monopolies. A tremendous outlay of capital was needed to begin construction and erect power lines. It might take years for the investment to start paying off. Further, numerous companies duplicating power lines would be a tremendous waste. There were not enough investors to build too many power companies at any one time. Insull proposed that Edison accept state regulation in exchange for a monopoly. Insull reasoned that, as with other regulated industries, such as the meat packing industry, government regulators can be “controlled”—bribed, in other words. This concept caught on, so power companies emerged as protected monopolies accorded special legal privileges and protection, while pretending to work in the interest of the people.

As if this business model was not insidious enough, Insull went one better. Instead of raising prices, which why monopolies are frowned upon—no competition, they are free to name their price, Insull proposed to cut prices drastically. Not only did this make good business sense—the cost of coal was negligible versus the initial capital outlay for construction, and once the plants were fired up, operating costs were low. This encouraged the public to try electricity. Insull figured, correctly, that once people were using electricity that they would continue to do so.

Plenty of available cheap power had immediate and enormous social and economic benefits. New technology flourished and led to refrigeration, radios and mass production. People were thrilled that they no longer had to burn coal in their own home. There was a power plant that would do that. Homes became cleaner and quieter. Advertising stressed how much leisure time would be gained if appliances did most of the work in the home: “women will be free from the drudgery with new appliances doing the work for them!” The demand was created, and Insull was right, there was no going back.

Insull wanted more and even bigger power plants. He had heard about the new turbines and put them to work to generate power. Old steam engines were out, turbines were in and the era of the big coal plant had begun.

Demand grew by leaps and bounds. In 1905 less than 10% of American homes were wired to accept electricity. By the late 1920’s 75% of American homes wired (overall) -- in urban areas, it was 100%. Department stores, first Marshall Fields in Chicago, opened their doors to sell these new appliances. The American culture of consumerism was born. Other innovations in industry soon followed: Henry Ford worked for Detroit Edison. He was inspired by Edison and Insull. Ford quit in 1899 to start his car company. Cheap power meant lower costs which meant lower prices, which led to the assembly line.

By the 1930’s, the US stopped burning coal to heat homes. In 1940’s, we stopped burning it to power trains. In the 1950’s, nuclear power was heralded as its clean replacement. And for a few years it was, but then Three Mile Island came along, followed by Chernobyl and the ever pesky problem of disposing of radioactive waste. By 1975, Natural Gas was on the ascendancy and until 2002 most US power plants ran on natural gas. But instability in the Middle East ,the rapid depletion of fossil fuels and a couple of wars, not to mention 9/11 demonstrated that the continued global use of 80 million barrels a day will cannot continue ad nauseum.

Today, coal is transported by river barge to a river to a power plant. The coal goes up in a conveyor belt to the boiler. The coal burns in a 200 foot fireball which turns the water at the bottom to steam, which turns the turbines. The power then goes to a generator and to the transmission lines.

Coal got a little too big for its britches. If more and more power was generated, then rates would go down due to regulation, and if there are too many sources, the industry would lose its protected status. Then OPEC came along and oil stole the spot light from coal. De-regulation in 1980’s and 1990’s led to innovation due to competition and stimulated stagnant industries who grew bloated providing one product with old technology. Why outlay capital to try something new if you had a captive audience and protected status and guaranteed income? Just think of the innovations that blossomed once the telephone company was made into many telephone companies. We went from hard wired rotary phones to modular phones to cell phones and fiber optics in just a few short years.

But the big dirty power companies, built before pollution abatement laws, produce power so cheaply there is no competition. America was starting to feel the effects of the untrammeled burning of dirty coal.

Masontown, in Greene County Pennsylvania, became so polluted that numerous people contracted cancer, the air was un-breathable, and the town had a thick patina of coal dust. In Donora, Pennsylvania, a temperature inversion on October 26, 1948 trapped gases in the valley from the steel mills and furnaces. Twenty people dropped dead, and thousands fell ill. In 1952 a temperature inversion occurred in London, England and trapped sulfur fumes. 12,000 people dropped dead.

By the 1970’s, environmental degradation could no longer be ignored. Joel Schwartz, while working for the EPA, compiled statistics on how much it would cost the power industry to clean up its act-- He also compiled statistics on how much it would cost if the industry did not clean up its act. He studied the town of Steubenville, Ohio, a town with several polluting steel mills. His study merged with The Harvard Six Cities Study. Mortality rates were compared between the most polluted city, Steubenville, with the least polluted city, Portage, WI. The death rate was 26% higher in Steubenville, even factoring in damaging lifestyle risk factors.

Environmental concerns became a political football: How to balance industrial output that everyone needs, but at the same time not to destroy the air we all must breathe. Lobbyists with big money from big power descended on Washington to preserve the protected status the industry was bound and determined not to lose, and to forestall costly pollution abatement controls.

Meanwhile, studies showed the dire effects of particulate pollution and mercury poisoning. Coal fired plants were releasing 48 tons of mercury into the air each day. This drifted down into rivers and streams and entered the food chain. Fish ingested the mercury, people ingested the fish. Mercury, once in the body, does not leave the body and is a neurotoxin. The results of mercury poisoning were already known. Hat makers used mercury salt to make felt hats. The phrase “mad as a hatter” came into the lexicon due to the madness that resulted from long term exposure. Sir Isaac Newton succumbed to Mercury poisoning. He became obsessed with mercury and thought it could be alchemized into gold, and lost his mind. In the 19th Century, the Chisso Corporation dumped mercury into Minamata Bay (Japan) for years. The mercury was used as a catalyst for plastic production. Thousands of people in Minamata Bay noticed their cats go mad and turn wild. Then thousands of people died and thousands lived on impaired.

Even if legislation was introduced, high powered lawyers fueled by big coal money could circumvent the law, obtain delays and obtain building permits for plants yet to be built and grandfathered in before the laws took effect. The Nixon era saw some progress in environmental protection. He enfolded the environmentalists into his camp and put his detractors on the payroll.

With oil reserves rapidly depleting and the political chaos in the Middle East, reliance on oil is untenable. It is not a renewable resource.

Default: back to coal. The US has 25% of the world’s coal buried under its borders. How long with this last? 500 years? 240 Years? Hard to say. Harder even to get at. 30% is un-mineable. The Appalachian seam which runs from Pennsylvania to Alabama has been mined for 150 years. 13 Billion tons of coal has been extracted; and at what a tremendous human cost. Since 1900, 100,000 people have died in mining accidents, 200,000 have died from black lung, and 500,000 have had their lives cut short by the devastating effects of coal pollution, including heavy metal poisoning and a carbon footprint Big Foot would envy.

West Virginia is called the Mountain State. Transporting coal is difficult. Trains have a hard time navigating the deep gorges and precipitous climbs and hair pin curves. Over loaded coal trucks have to travel down the middle of the road. Numerous fatal accidents result. But have the residents of West Virginia prospered like the Saudi Oil Sheiks? Not at all. West Virginia is plagued by the highest poverty rate in the country, the lowest literacy rate (equivalent to Kabul, Afghanistan), the highest obesity rate, cancers and diseases, tooth loss and environmental devastation. Unlike Pittsburgh, there were no Carnegie Libraries or museums endowed.

But Pennsylvania has not fared that much better. The Quecreek mine disaster was caused by trying to wrest the last bit of coal out of an all but played out mine. Relying on maps from the turn of the last century, miners tried their best to avoid a flooded old mine known to be in the area…and failed. Quecreek was a scavenger operation, a “dog hole”, sold to a second tier mining company. Over in Somerset County (1 ½ hours east of Pittsburgh, the only employers in town are the State Penitentiary, a coal mine or Wal-Mart. Does Somerset County sound familiar? It should, Flight 93 ended very near the coal mine that fateful September day in 2001.

West Virginia started an innovative way to get coal. No longer do men go below to remove coal from the earth. The earth is removed to get at the coal. Called Mountain Top Removal, the tops of mountains are literally blown off. The coal is exposed and trucks come in and scoop up the coal. Men no longer are not trapped by the flames of exploding methane pockets, nor do they drown when an old adjacent flooded mine is breeched.

MTR has dire environmental repercussions and consequences. In one instance, 700 miles of streams were buried by a displaced mountain top. Four hundred acres of forest disappeared in seconds and plumes of toxic fumes waft across the globe. A molecule of mercury thrown up by the blast in Southern West Virginia enters the brain of a child in Minnesota a few days later. Toxic effluent from Jiamusi China crosses the Pacific Ocean and is inhaled by sun bathers in Malibu. Slurry spills—a sludge pond that is corralled by fences-- can pour down on a town like water from a burst dam. At least one is perched on a hillside above an elementary school. If it were to give way, the children in the school would have no chance to escape—they would be suffocated under a viscous river of toxic waste. Downward seepage of slurry routinely pollutes the drinking water of communities with heavy metal. Once heavy metals enter the human body, they cannot be excreted. They accumulate and the result is spinal cord deformities, the onset of mental retardation where none existed before, and rare cancers. After one slurry spill, 75 miles of a river was covered and 1.6 million fish died. It polluted the drinking water source of 270,000 people.

Denuding a mountain top and exposing bare earth has devastating results when the rains come. A mere five inches of rain has the immediate impact that 25 inches of rain would have in a non MTR setting. The descendants of the very people that mined the coal-- the homes built by the years of saving by their grandfathers – are being washed away. One woman has to park on the other side of a stream and carry groceries from her car across planks laid down across the stream. The county has never repaired the damage and according to the coal mining company, the damage resulted from rain-- “An Act of God” that they are not responsible for.

Another recent coal mine is in Gillette, Wyoming. Miners here fare the best. They do not go underground, nor are tops of mountains blown away. This is flat land. Miners here are heavy equipment operators and sit and work in a control room in front of a computer. The blasting supervisors go out and plant 100 times the amount of the same explosive Timothy McVeigh used to blow up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Once the ground rises up like a blanket being shaken, the coal is near the surface and trucks come in and haul the load to the silo. Trains, a mile long, moving at only a couple of miles an hour pass under the silo and their cars are loaded up. 25% of US coal reserves are under Gillette. It takes a mile long train to 12 hours to move 12,500 tons of coal to go 121 miles to a power plant that will burn this entire load in 12 hours.

If coal mining has such a nasty reputation, then why is the practice allowed to continue? In a word, money, lots of it. Big money. The State of West Virginia gets millions in tax dollars, politicians get millions in campaign contributions and lobbying efforts, and the owners of the mines make millions per year. Railroads are once again king. The mines are at the mercy of the railroads that set high rates for transporting the coal. The only ones that do not get a share other than a poverty wage are the worker bees—whose children are killed by rocks the size of Volkswagens tumbling down the hill above them, who get their water contaminated (some wells test at 500% above the safe heavy metal level), the air that they breathe polluted, their backs broken from being stooped over for hours in the mine, and the very earth beneath them blasted into the stratosphere. Those that survive the rocks raining down on them, and the sudden thick floods of sludge get to live in poverty-- obese, and illiterate.

On a bright note, the Greening Earth Society (funded by the mines and the railroads) concluded that global warming is actually good for the planet because it causes crops and trees to grow faster!

The best global warming models say that the temperature of earth can rise about 3.5 degrees. More than that and catastrophic irreversible effects snowball. Hurricane Katrina was not our wake up call, but the snooze button going off. The temperature of earth has risen about 2 degrees. By 2050 if coal burning is not curtailed significantly, the earth will be at the point of no return in the ability to continue to support life. There is a city in China that has seen a change in climate: the winters come earlier and are colder, the summers arrive later and are much hotter. There was never a need for air conditioners. Now, everyone must have them--which leads to more demand for power, and more pollution from burning dirty coal-- The greenhouse spiral.

The greatest threat is the untrammeled burning of coal by China. China burns 50% more coal than the US. There have been treaties and agreements to burn less coal or clean it up somehow, but those have been honored much like the treaties of yesteryear made with the Native Americans. The US is in a quandary. How can we convince China to burn less coal that will lead to improving their economy and the Chinese way of life? How can we deny them a ready supply of power that will industrialize them when we ourselves enjoy the benefit of super industrialization? And if China will not curtail burning coal, why should we and let them surpass us industrially?

The Cold War is over. The Coal War has just begun.

[Ron Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The average person uses 20 pounds of coal a day for electricity. I'm using some of mine now to write this review. I suck.

[Woolstar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a bit dated, as it was published during the Bush years, before fracking came in and changed the energy landscape, which among other things put a few nails in the coal coffin. But it does document the work by the coal industry to prolong the era of coal plants, and the continuing ineffectiveness of oversight of coal mining and the power industry.

Got a better historical overview from Coal: A Human History, but this gave more of a political perspective from the last century to beginning of this one.

[Dennis Littrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Big coal, big problem?

There are a number of problems connected with the burning of coal to create electricity. Coal pollutes the atmosphere. Mining coal plays havoc with the environment, especially when the methods used include blowing off the top of mountains and letting the debris wash down the gullies into the rivers and streams. Mining coal can be a dangerous, dirty job. And--as is the case with other fossil fuels--we will, soon or late, run out of coal. And, by the way, this will be sooner than coal executives would have us believe. (See "Coal, reserves" in the excellent index.)

But are these problems unsolvable and/or the price we have to pay to keep the economic engine humming?

Phrased in another way, "The issue is not really whether we have enough coal to provide enough electricity to keep our air conditioners cranked up. We surely do. The issue is, how big a part of America are we willing to sacrifice for this privilege?" (p. 19)

Journalist Jeff Goodell spent three years looking deeply into these questions. He talked to the miners and the coal executives. He rode the trains that haul coal and he went to China where coal is used for everything from making the fire to turn the turbines to cooking the evening meal. He saw a lot of pollution in China and he saw a lot of devastation in West Virginia. He talked to people with black lung and to people who have had part of their property washed down stream because the land above them had been stripped by coal mining. He talked to think tank conservatives who claim that coal is the answer to our dependence on foreign oil; and he talked to environmentalists who believe that the burning of coal is going to trigger an environmental disaster because of all the carbon dioxide being spewed into the atmosphere (not to mention the mercury, lead, chromium, arsenic, sulfur dioxide, soot and "particulates"). He looked at the politics and the economics of coal. He looked at human costs and finally he looked at the future of coal.

What he found is deeply troubling. As the oil patch runs dry we are going to build more coal plants, we are going to use coal to make diesel fuel for our vehicles and we are going to pollute the atmospheric "commons." We and the Chinese and the Russians and others. And it looks like the planet is going to get a lot hotter before we wake up and realize the we can no longer burn fossil fuels for our energy needs. The environmental costs of burning coal simply will not be worth the energy we get.

This is the bottom line that is so very hard for us to appreciate. As Goodell makes clear, the real costs of burning coal--pollution of the environment, health costs, global warming--are largely invisible. The coal companies don't want to pay these costs. They use their political clout to make sure that those costs are paid for by others. And our government is not going to stop burning coal since to do so would give an economic advantage to other nations that continue to burn coal. Meanwhile the amount of pollutants in the atmosphere continues to grow, and our air becomes like the land in the "tragedy of the commons"--used, abused, and eventually despoiled because nobody can be held responsible.

Coal executives like to say that coal brings prosperity. Look at Wyoming. Look at China. But Goodell also has us look at West Virginia. "Over the past 150 years or so, more than 13 billion tons of coal have been carted out the Mountain State. What do West Virginians have to show for it? The lowest median household income in the nation, a literacy rate in the southern coalfields that's about the same as Kabul's, and a generation of young people who are abandoning their home state to seek their fortunes elsewhere." (pp. xx-xxi)

The situation is the same or worse in the coal mining areas of China. Already China is looking to reduce its dependance on coal. They are "building the largest offshore wind farm in the world." They are replacing coal-fired power plants with natural gas, and they've "banned the use of coal for heating and cooking in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai." (p. 230) But of course they are also building more coal burning power plants to generate electricity--as we are.

The race now is on between how many dirty coal burning plants Big Coal can get built before they are stopped by the inevitable legislation to come that will require coal plants not only to scrub their stacks for particulates, but to capture and sequester carbon dioxide.

Goodell looks at the "integrated gasification combined cycle" (IGCC) power plants that are proposed and being built. These plants cook off the impurities in coal and convert the coal to a synthetic gas. The process makes it easier and cheaper to capture CO2 from the coal. He writes, "The difference between an IGCC power plant and a conventional coal plant is sometimes said to be akin to the difference between a Toyota Prius and a Chevrolet Suburban." (p. 210) IGCCs are clearly the coal power plants of the future, but they are expensive to build and so Big Coal prefers to build conventional plants.

What I came away feeling after reading this engagingly written, meticulously researched, and well-documented journalistic tour de force is the sense that things are going to get worse before they get better, and that our children and grandchildren are going to suffer from the ill-effects of burning coal to a degree that will make them wonder what our generations were doing while the atmosphere and the earth burned. And it is they who will paid the economic costs that our politicians and corporate executives are avoiding today.

--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”

[Adam Orford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a product of its time - written in the depths of the Bush administration's hard shift toward fossil energy, in the halcyon days before the financial collapse of 2008 and the demoralizing 2009 failures of both the Waxman-Markey bill and COP15 at Copenhagen, when debates over coal were dominated by what now appear to be naive fantasies about both the imminent rise of technological solutions (IGCC and carbon capture and storage), and legislative action on climate change, this book got a lot of the future wrong, and the parts of the book that make predictions simply do not stand the test of time.

On the other hand, there is still a lot to enjoy (or maybe appreciate is a better word) about this book, as it provides a good overview of the United States coal industry. The author does a particularly good job of explaining the interplay between rail transportation and the coal industry, and does a good job bringing together the many, many appalling social harms that the coal industry - or more accurately the coal mining and coal power industries - are responsible for, from terrible treatment of labor forces, to mountaintop removal practices in Appalachia, to misleading media and political campaigns about "clean" coal, to a long history efforts to evade and undermine air quality laws. Late in the book it also provides a very interesting look into the Chinese coal industry, something that is not well represented in popular literature. At the end of the analysis, the author does not call coal industry executives a bunch of criminals, but he certainly provides plenty of support for anyone else who would like to.

There will be a substantial number of people who will very strongly wish that the facts as presented in this book were not true. I think it is incumbent upon them to state exactly what this book got wrong. If they cannot, then it is more likely a case of Upton Sinclair's famous point: "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” The sad thing is that, as is so often and eloquently presented in this book, the coal industry is most devastating to those who depend on it for employment.

Ultimately, this is a book to read if you are open to the idea that the coal industry should be dead, dead, dead - or if you want to begin to understand why so many people think it ought to be.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coal is a huge part of our lives, but most of us don't even know it. This book attempts to change that. Split up into 3 sections, the book describes the mining and transportation of coal, the burning of coal at power plants, and finally, the environmental affects and protections related to burning coal.

Discussions include the heavy reliance on coal mining companies in Appalachia. The economy and survival of small towns in coal states like West Virginia depend on coal companies and the work/taxes they provided. Workers had little protections against dangerous working conditions such as mine flooding, toxic air and black lung. Many miners died to provide coal for these power plants.

Trains are important for coal. They transport coal from rural mines to the power plants throughout the United States. The author describes riding on a coal train, long and heavy, needed engines on the front and back. Coal companies don't want to mess with train companies.

The last section was heavily political. Many discussions of policy that influenced the coal industry, policies to protect the air and water. Mercury was discovered the cause brain problems, so protections were set up to prevent it from entering our atmosphere and waters. This applies to other toxins emitted by burning coal as well. Even though IGCC is a useful technology for providing "clean coal", it hasnt been very successful. International attempts to reduce carbon such as the Kyoto protocol was discussed, noting China's growing role in protecting against carbon emissions while being able to grow their economy.

Recommended read for anyone interested in the coal industry, from being mined, to transported, to burned, and to being emitted, sprinkling in a bunch of political issues throughout.

[Catherine Bixler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book from Jane Addams bookstore in Champaign, back in college, and always meant to get back to it and I’m so glad I did. Although this was written in the early 2000’s (they mention congressman Barack Obama lol and they call EVs ‘e-hybrids’) everything is as true today and even more urgent than the messaging back then. It’s frustrating how political everything is in order for policies and mindsets to change - it’s all money driven, down the capitalist system we run on. 2 decades later and yes, there has been much progress, but the goalposts tend to sound like 2030-40-50 now. Makes me want to read more of his books because I really enjoyed his writing!

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am very glad that I read this. It is educational and disturbing at the same time. Despite being written over a decade ago, the facts and the concepts definitely still apply and I would highly recommend reading it. While there is reference to politicians, I did not find the book to be overly political because the author does such a great job of tying things together. Having been around for the "running out of oil crisis" and then seeing how technology extended that fossil fuel, it is easy and scary to imagine how long coal could be around without a major intervention.

[James Willcox · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though somewhat dated, this book remains an important look at the politics, policy, and greed that combine to allow the coal industry to continue to kill and destroy. There is hope. We need many more voices shouting out against the fossil fuel establishment and shouting for positive destructive change. We also need honest leaders with the integrity to honor the promises they make to save the environment before it is too late.

[Kelleen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I had a more up to date version, rather than 10 years old.
I'm sure it was great at the time, but It left me wondering what the numbers and changes (or lack of change) was occurring right now.

[Isabella Fray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t take me too long to listen to this book on my commute but I can’t actually remember a lot of it now. I think it would have been helpful to include more about lobbying, and also how the big industries work together and in competition.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informmative, but a little long. Had to put it on hold, but enjoyed the take on the information.

[Nathanael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good insights into US coal mining, transport and power generation. Although published almost 2 decades ago, still worth a read.

[Lee Hampton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it. Looking for some other books that give an update now almost 2 decades later.

[Joanna Hetterman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good. Shed a lot of light on why there is so much political debate over coal and its future in the first place. Really important context for anyone who votes (which I hope is everyone!)

[Emily Sherwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting information, but a bit hard to read.

[Dolanite · Rating 5 out of 5]

The coal industry is responsible for so much bad in the US and they have just been deregulated. The whole of the US will suffer.

[Justin Tapp · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one author's attempt to frame the modern American coal industry explain where it has come from and ask where it is going. I read Barbara Freese's Coal: A Human History after this book and I highly recommend Freese's work over Goodell's. Freese is a better writer and also takes the time to look at the broader worldwide history of coal, beginning in England, and looks at the development of the entire U.S. economy touching coal. Both books have a strong bent of environmental concern.

Is there such a thing as clean coal or should we relegate coal to the dustbin of history? The "dirty secret" seems to be "no," or maybe the dirty secret is that the figures on coal abundance in America are misleading in that only 20-30% of what is within our borders is economically viable to mine. The "War on Coal" and environmental regulations are not the main reason for the industry's decline, they simply speed up what is already projected. Goodell writes that companies like Georgia Power spend a lot of money on material and seminars casting doubt on climate change in small, rural, red state areas to help portray any coal-bashing as mythological. I recently read Sen. Rand Paul's book where he makes the statement "The coal industry is not destroying the natural beauty of Kentucky." Even miners who rely on the mines for a living wouldn't go that far.

Big Coal's weakness is that it focuses solely on America and ignores the wider history of coal and its relationship to other energy markets. Some of the reviews on Amazon by environmentalists suggest that the author's optimism on geological CO2 storage and Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle is misplaced or that he caved somehow to special interests. It is not a really hard-hitting expose, most of what is discussed is already common knowledge. There is criticism of Bush-Cheney energy policy and a retelling of the disappointment of Christine Todd Whitman. (Also claims the war in Iraq was good for the little energy companies in the US because of a greater desire for energy independence.) While the future may be in clean technologies, the author ignores any waste or untoward activity regarding taxpayer subsidies to green energy.

Goodell examines various ideas like carbon sequestration and integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants. Goodell writes that IGCC plants cost only 20% more than a normal plant, so he chafes at industry complaints and lobbying over cost concerns and points to one in Tennessee which turned a profit without federal subsidy. However, others argue that the cost estimates are higher than what Goodell thought reliable, so the debate continues. There is not a great deal of depth is given to solar or other advancements; reading a magazine article could get you about as much.

For me, the most interesting chapter in the book focused on the role the monopolist railroad BNSF has in helping determine the price of coal. Transportation costs via BNSF are a major factor keeping Wyoming coal from having an even larger advantage over Appalachian coal. The railroad has a reputation for retaliating if coal companies sue or complain. The author also records the difficult life of railroad engineers and safety issues-- how many work long shifts and get little sleep; think of the horror stories you've heard of airlines and then increase it by a factor. Instead of carrying passengers, they carry toxic freight that can poison a community if it derails in the right spot.

The average American burns 20 pounds of coal a day. I'm writing just after 2015, when Americans finally got more electricity from natural gas than coal in the last several months (according to the US Energy Information Agency). Appalachian coal is less marketable as the glut of oil and natural gas have put downward pressure on prices. Coal in Montana, while dirtier and harder to remove mercury from, is much cheaper (and easier in terms of productivity) to mine than the bituminous Appalachian variety. The boom-bust cycle of coal mining here in Kentucky is currently in a bust, and unemployment rates in these regions are well above the national average; many are migrating West to find jobs in automobile plants in Kentucky which are, ironically, experiencing a boom due to low gasoline prices.

If there is a villain in the book, it's Massey Energy Chairman Don Blankenship. Even before the 2010 Big Branch disaster that killed 29 miners in West Virginia, Blankenship's firm had a reputation for cutting corners and being the "biggest bully in the sandbox" when it came to lobbying and litigation. Blankenship lived in the region where Massey operated and just miles from where groundwater became polluted by his company's coal slurry. Massey apparently paid to build his own water line to a neighboring town than rely on the local well water; he declined to help his neighbors do likewise.

There are not actually very many secrets in this book. A decent primer on the state of the American coal industry circa 2007. "It was okay" on Amazon = 3 stars, on Goodreads it's 2 stars.

[Antonio Baclig · Rating 4 out of 5]

America uses about a billion tons of coal a year, which works out to about 20 lbs of coal per person per day (basically all going to make 50% of U.S. electricity). How we have come to this point? And what are the unintended effects of such a large-scale use of natural resources? I have become very interested in these questions since starting to work at a company developing carbon sequestration, an emissions reduction technology primarily intended for coal plants.

Goodell’s book opened my eyes to many consequences, and dirt, of the coal industry in America: the environmental degradation and human tragedies associated with coal mining; the insecurity and low pay of most mining jobs; the public health effects of pollution from burning coal. After reading about the low safety standards of Massey Energy, a West Virginia mining company, the recent accident that killed 25 miners in one of their mines came as no surprise. I found Christine Whitman’s (EPA administrator under Bush) treatment by Bush and Cheney on the issue of limiting CO2 emissions—heavily influenced by big coal companies—depressing.

Although I felt that I gained a lot from the book and hope that more people are exposed to this information, Goodell’s decidedly anti-coal stance made the book less than it could have been. Yes, the coal industry works hard to promote the use of coal, but there are more reasons than that for coal’s widespread use—it is also the cheapest way to generate a lot of power, and that is not going to change soon. The alternatives to coal are not simple, which Goodell assumes. Yes, global warming is happening, and coal companies are fighting tooth-and-nail against limits on the use of coal, but a presentation of the facts would have been more effective without all of the sermonizing.

So how have we come to this point? The logic of lower electricity prices increasing demand for electricity, and growing demand making cheap electricity essential; to a lesser extent, a lot of unenforced legislation and under-the-table politics. Obama’s call for investigation into the recent coal mine accident gives me a glimmer of hope for the latter, but for the former, and the big question of how one can limit a society’s consumption—I can only ponder.

[Misha · Rating 4 out of 5]

on the planes so far, It goes well but the book is surprisingly short
it sort of reads like an extended new york times article, especially
since the most of the highlights (like micro particles, mercury
pollution, the miners problems) are covered in NYT. Also, it feels
like an article because the book is up-to-date -- there are citations
from 2006.

Well, he attributes human character traits to states. And you are a
malcontent. We should give the guy credit for fleshing out big coal's
relation to Bush' administration and giving the "big picture" (in
anecdotes if you will) of the industry. I liked how the US energy
companies came out as slugging mastodons, set in their ways, eager to
bully and bribe to preserve the status quo; even though more efficient
technologies are either available or relatively easily found (what
was that four-letter unpronounceable acronym technology that Hitler
used?). I liked how the railroads, due to being the chokepoint between
mines and powerplants are able to appropriate the greater share of the
surplus value (pardon my French). I liked how the old (and dirty)
coal-firing plants are the most profitable as the owners have recouped
their capital investments. Hence, resistance to close them down.

His investigation into "early days" of the industry where
what's-his-name(?) successor of Edison (Ipkins?) structured the
utilities to induce Americans to consume more electric power (big
power plants, flat rates). It is somewhat unconvincing although
interesting. I don't want a small power plant in my backyard. And it
does not seem to be all that difficult to switch to variable rates. At
least the guy should be given credit for trying to investigate it.

I agree, Kioto chapter is weak. Moral dilemmas and calls for "tough
choices" that permeate the rump part of the book are silly.

[Japhet Els · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great backgrounder on the coal industry here in the United States. Gooddell does an fantastic job of providing a sound but biased view on the incredible power that coal companies have to do what they want, how they want, when they want.

Skipping over the heavy details of the history behind Big Coal, Gooddell focuses on the current status of the industry and the rising local activists working to push back against multi-billion dollar corporations who continue to pollute rivers and streams to the point of complete ecological collapse, blow off the tops of mountains throughout Appalachia and parts of Wyoming, dumping their waste into valleys and riverbeds. This has caused huge coal floods that displace hundreds and sometimes thousands of locals who are forced to evacuate their homes and relocate.

The bottom line is this: while we may think our iPod and high-tech society is forward thinking and pushing the envelope on development, its all being powered by the same black rock that we've been burning for energy since the Middle Ages.

[Kristina · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a title like "Big Coal," you'd expect a very one-sided diatribe against the industry. Surprisingly, this book also shows that getting rid of coal altogether is not a workable panacea. It questions the use of old technique coal processing and explores some of the new coal technology that would lead to a near zero emission process. The author also discusses all of the political ties between companies and government. The author discusses modern solutions that are being implemented in the developing world like carbon trading and funding the preservation of rain forests. The writing is very accessible and does not require a scientific background of the reader. I'd recommend this book, but in all honesty, it has made me rather depressed about the great negative influence of profit and power on an problem that will directly impact the next generation. The author ends on an optimistic note, but unfortunately I can't share his hope.

[Shin Furuya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives a great overview and detail description of lifecycle of coal from mining, transporting to burning with many testimonies from individuals who involved in each of these processes thus gives us more concrete idea about coal and related industries. The author also gives us the detail accounts of the reality of lobbying by 'big coal' and how influential they are to contribute to distort the reality of climate change. From the economy, environment, labor and politics, it covers comprehensive issues regarding coal with critical view based on the concrete evidences the author read, saw or felt through not only his in-depth research but also by physically traveling throughout the coal related industries by following the lifecycle of it by himself.



His actual contact with people made the book more colorful thus successfully avoided becoming dry monotonous typical industrial analysis books. So, i really enjoyed reading it without gettingn bored.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a discussion of carbon footprints and CO2 legislation I found this book timely, and well researched. Some friends have found the book preachy. While the author has his specific slant to the topic I thought the text offered the most thorough, comprehensive life-cycle analysis of the coal burning power plant I had ever encountered. His narrative is particularly strong when describing the coal mining process. Coal fired power plants have less tactile and narrative draw. I felt the author extrapolated to the industry the attributes of a handful of personalities. I piked it up from an airport bookstore and read the whole thing by the time I landed back home.

[Nicole Means · Rating 4 out of 5]

Energy consumers are quite ignorant about where our energy derives, but, according to the author, that's the way Big Coal wants to keep us. Isn't it ironic, they destroy our environment to provide us with electricity, but they do not want us to know all the horrors of what they are doing to our environment. Consumers are truly disconnected about the true price of power.I was under the misconception that coal was primarily used in "developing" nations, and not as much in the U.S. According to the statistics and information, I and millions of other Americans have been mislead.Our energy crisis is truly daunting for ourselves and our future generations if we don't take action now.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Father, Grandfather and Uncles were all coal miners at one point in their life. An good book if you don't know anything about the coal industry, the history of it, or understand the importance of coal in our country and how coal is not going to go away. Safety issues for mining are always a concern and coal has gotten a bad rap with the global warming. But you need to see both sides of this story and appreciate coal every time you fire up your Ipod or computer. Thank you coal miners!!

[Libtechgurugoddess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating to read and well-written. This is an eye-opening exposé of the coal industry. I didn't know we had gone so far back into the Dark Ages and were allowing the massive displacement of cleaner methods of energy provision. Most people have no idea that 50% of our energy comes from the burning of coal. To scare myself even more, I did a little research and right now there are 5 coal-fired power plants awaiting permits in the state of Texas where I live. Not new, "clean" plants either, but the traditional CO2-emitting, filthy versions. Why are we letting this happen?