The Jackson County Coal Company started one of the first coal mines in the midwest, which ran along the Big Muddy River. That was in 1822.
The company no longer exists and is merely known by Carbondale historians.
The Carbondale Coal and Coke Company was more notable to Jackson County, starting operations in 1872. The coal was produced in Carterville but sold in Carbondale for home heating or the production of steam for industrial purposes.
Back then, the mines in Carterville were an important source of jobs and a huge part of the Carbondale economy. In 1882, the Illinois Bureau of Labor statistics said the mines were "the only ones of importance now in active operation in the county."
Today, the Williamson Coal Company exists in Carterville. The only other two running coal mining operations in Jackson County are the Coulterville Coal Company and Knighthawl Coal, located in Coulterville and Chester.
Coal has a high carbon content, which is how Carbondale got its name. In the 1800s and beyond for many years, the town relied on coal passing through their railroads and stores to keep their economy afloat. Even today, Carbondale and surrounding communities have a certain reliance on coal, due to the coal-fired power plant located next to McAndrew Stadium.
So what if coal production dies? What does that mean for our economy and job market?
To bring the argument home, one major factor could be the savior for Illinois coal: gasificiation.
One of the major downfalls of Illinois coal is its unusually high levels of sulfur content. The high sulfur content has led to the shut-down of many coal-fired power plants because the sulfur content of coal is enhanced when burned.
However, John Mead, the director of the Coal Research Center at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, says gasification can be utilized to turn Illinois coal's high sulfur content into a postitive factor. He discussed gasification in an article by Perspectives, a research center for the university.
"Gasification is very attractive for Illinois coal because the high sulfur content is not a disincentive," Mead said. "It is actually a useful byproduct."
The gasification process neither contains nor emits greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide from coal. The waste that results from gasifitication can be beneficial; it can be used for such things as feedstock for animals and is readily available for the market.
"To increase the use of Illinois coal, the challenge is to identify new coal technologies. Sulfur dioxide control technologies are in limited use in Illinois, and so it's not a matter of providing incremental improvements," Mead says. "That's not going to radically increase the use of Illinois coal. Commercializing gasification is going to."
This issue gained some ground at SIUC last year when talks of a gasification plant on campus were in place. The plan, however, failed due to high costs, which were estimated at $1.5 billion.
The new plant was attractive because it was more environmentally friendly and it would produce energy for surrounding communities at a cheaper price than the current power plant. Estimates even showed that the building would create over 2,000 jobs for its construction.
Gasification is a new technology and has not had any fine-tuning; it is too expensive at the moment and requires more research to make it more cost-effective.
In an article by the Daily Egyptian, Andrea Wallace, a member of the Student Environmental Center, expressed her relief that the new plant's fallout.
"I think this will give (the Student Environmental Center) and students a chance to work with them in creating more renewable energy options on campus," Wallace said.
But to understand how coal is being affected in Carbondale, it must first be studied on a national and state level.
The most notable effort by the federal government to improve America's air quality was the Clean Air Act. While the CAA was enacted in 1970, it was revamped in recent years as reports showed environmental concerns were worse than expected.
The original purpose of the act was to limit emissions from industrial factories, but it did not take full force until 1990. This was when amendments were made to the act to give the government more authority and control over toxic air pollutants.
Carbon emissions are a concern with coal production, part of the reason why so many are against the aging technology.
The Environmental Protection Agency, which was formed one year after the CAA, established the Advanced Coal Technology Work Group in 2006.
After more amendments were placed to the CAA in 2004, the CAA Advisory Committee gave the ACT Work Group a mission to research advanced coal technologies and what their effect would be on the economy, environment, and state and regional developments.
Their report came out in January of 2008, which consisted of thirteen recommendations to increase production of advanced coal technologies.
Such programs as this have encouraged coal research at a state level, notably in Illinois.
The Illinois Clean Coal Institute was established in 1982 and is dedicated to keeping the production of coal a major energy producer. Their goal is to make coal more environmentally and economically sound while issuing outside contractors to research and develop new coal technologies.
The ICCI has acknowledged that increased carbon emissions have had negative effects on global climate change. Their mission statement is to control these emissions through coal beds, carbon recycling, and sequestration.
All of these efforts have been made to save the dying technology, which has been denounced by many environmental advocates as a thing of the past.
The Illinois Coal Association has reported declining numbers over the past 14 years. From 1995 to 2007, over 2,000 mine employees lost their jobs and the number of operating mines went from 28 to 17. In addition, while 64,000 tons of coal was produced in 1995, the number was down to about 32,000 in 2007.
The ICA also reports over 12,000 Illinois citizens are dependent on the coal industry, with most of those jobs being occupied in southern Illinois.
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