The local level has also been impacted by ongoing concerns about coal and its negative effect on the environment.
The university's Clean Coal Review Board has been a supporter of expanding advanced coal technologies throughout Illinois and locally.
The CCRB stated that it hopes to garner funds from governmental and private institutions to increase clean coal projects in Illinois.
One way it hopes to receive funds is through the Illinois Clean Energy Trust. The trust is a special property tax that values more conventional energy producers, such as coal, as much as newer renewable energy producers, such as wind and solar energy.
From these funds, the CCRB hopes to encourage the distribution of funds throughout Illinois and attract more investors and commercial users to coal.
Along with the ICCI, the local board has noted the negative effects of carbon emissions on the environment and has made it a goal to implement new and better technology for producing coal.
One project has been started by the CCRB that implements the concept of a "coal industrial park," which is aimed at making coal production more environmentally and economically sound.
The new project would make use of by-products of coal combustion and mining for various other purposes. This would increase coal's profitability and make it more environmentally friendly.
But the phrase "more environmentally friendly" implies there are still harmful effects from coal production. This gives renewable energy an edge coal may not be able to match.
With coal production facing such animosity and opposition, accompanied by the fact that it is not renewable and could soon be depleted, it appears as though coal could be on its last leg. What does this mean for the southern Illinois economy?
Since the 1970s, when the CAA was established, coal production has been on the decline, costing some communities many jobs and thousands of dollars. From 1978 to 1996, 46 mines and over 12,000 coal mining jobs were lost in Illinois alone.
Apart from jobs being lost, the slow death of the coal industry will have negative effects on education at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
SIUC is the only university in Illinois that offers both graduate and undergraduate programs in Mining Engineering.
The university has been recognized nationally for its coal research through its Mining and Mineral Resources Engineering Department. The department has recieved a lot of external funding from research facilities and federal and state agencies, averaging about $1 million in funds every year.
Their research goals include the utilization of coal combustion, gasification development, carbon dioxide sequestration, and improved fine coal cleaning methods. If coal technology dies in the near future, the Mining Engineerng program may as well.
Recently, the CRC received a $100,000 grant that will bring advanced equipment to Parkinson labs and the Coal Developmental Park. In an article with the Daily Egyptian, Ken Anderson, an associate profesor of organic chemistry, said the new research will concentrate on making transportation fuel out of coal.
Anderson also sees a much bigger future for coal than most of his opponents.
“Coal is going to be a resource that is used for the next 300 years, at least,” Anderson said. “Now that petroleum has gotten more expensive, it’s very cost-effective to make transportation fluids from coal.”
However, there are many that disagree with Anderson. One of those individuals is Jeff Green, a board member of the Illinois Renewable Energy Association. He sees a much shorter timeline for coal.
"In the next 20 to 40 years, coal needs to disappear as an energy source," Green said. "In reality of the future, coal is no longer affordable."
Many do not want coal to stick around because the harmful environmental effects of coal may too much when compared to new renewable energy techniques.
While more and more people are becoming anti-coal, there are still a number of proponents who see coal being utilized as an environmentally sound and major energy producer in the future. Understanding both sides is essential because the world's enviromental problems will be difficult to solve until there is one combined effort by all energy sectors.
One argument used by coal advocates is affordability. Coal's cost of production and transportation has been reportedly lower than other natural resources, such as oil and natural gas.
Coal has also become a socioeconomially important factor in Illinois, as it is nearly a $1 billion industry.
However, these numbers do not outweigh the growing concern of the negative effects coal has on land, water, and air quality. This is why advanced coal technology has been heavily pushed and promoted in recent years as a way to save the industry.
Clean coal proponents will note various developments that have kept the coal industry above water.
One such concept is the idea of carbon capture, which has been noted alongside the popular idea of sequestration. Both incorporate the idea of capturing carbon dioxide emissions from large sources, such as industrial plants, and storing them underground and away from the atmosphere.
Carbon capture and storage also uses various other ways of storing carbon emissions, such as the ocean, oil fields, reservoirs, and carbon sinks.
Sequestration has picked up ground lately as President Barack Obama has endorsed the practice and hopes to implement it into coal operations. Notably, two Environmental Protection Agency lawyers, Laurie Williams and Allan Zabel, are opposed to the construction of any new coal plants that do not store their carbon emissions underground. Al Gore, an extremely significant figure in the push for renewable energy, joins the lawyers in promoting sequestration.
Another argument of the supporters is the refinement of coal, which is increasing the efficiency of coal and lowering emissions whenever coal is burned. Prior to the burning of coal, refining is used to alter the characteristics of the coal, thus making it more environmentally sound.
While these arguments are gaining ground and a few supporters, there seems to be a looming and larger number of people who do not support clean coal technology. They see renewable energy sources as the future, such as wind and solar energy, because of their environmental and economical potential.
The decommissioning of coal-fired power plants has already begun, due to reports that show these plants emit higher concentrations of carbon emissions. This has been deemed as "phasing out" coal.
SIUC has its own coal-fired power plant. It has been controversial among local environmental groups and the growing number who see coal as a thing of the past.
Various coal moratoriums have called for actions such as phasing out coal, hoping to rid coal as a major energy producer if the industry fails to become more environmentally beneficial.
Mountaintop removal mining, revealing the coal buried within mountains, has shown to have detrimental effects on surrounding communities and the environment. The practice has also revealed much biodiversity and pollution in surrounding water.
One of the biggest arguments against coal is its cost. While coal may be cheaper than other natural resources, many see it as too expensive when compared to renewable energy. According to Green, the economic potential of coal has all but disappeared.
"To be blunt, coal has only short term gain. The future cost of coal is astronomical. It is the main constituent of global warming and must be the first to go," Green said. "Coal will eventually become the most expensive energy around."
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