Why Coal with Remain Necessary – North American Mining Magazine, September 2023.
Coal will remain critically important as we usher in our energy future and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.
As the nation’s transition to renewable energy gains speed, with the rapid deployment of wind and solar power and grid-scale batteries, a misguided idea is taking hold.
There’s no longer any need for coal generation and coal mining in the United States.
There are major benefits from electricity produced at coal plants and mining.
Coal will remain critically important as we usher in our energy future and rebuild the nation’s infrastructure. Coal is more reliable and free of the intermittency risks that renewables have. In fact, premature efforts to push coal aside not only threaten severe economic damage in coal states but also jeopardize much of the Biden administration’s domestic agenda.
Think about the extraordinary importance of metallurgical coal to steel production – steel is essential in building infrastructure and undergirding the energy technologies for tomorrow’s electricity grid.
Worldwide, 70% of steel is manufactured with metallurgical coal, known as met coal. In the United States, more than 170 met mines support 11,000 direct jobs – and the mines will be critically important in manufacturing steel, the world’s essential building material.
Click here to read this full article from North American Mining Magazine, September 2023.
