For years, sustainability has been painted as a battle between responsible environmental practices and human productivity—but the truth is, these ideas are not mutually exclusive. Over the last few decades, the coal industry has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into safety and environmental stewardship projects. It has pioneered advancements that enable responsible coal mining and technologies that seek to reduce environmental impacts beginning with mine planning through coal utilization.
Coal Plays a Role in Achieving Global Economic, Social, and Environmental Aspirations.
Coal Mining
Social responsibility starts at the human level and the coal mining industry continues to advance innovation as a means to promote a safe and healthy workplace for the men and women who mine the coal that fuels the world.
Coal Mining
Safety
The mining industry is incredibly vocal about its aim to achieve zero life-altering injuries. With an industry culture emphasizing safety, training, and empowerment, two-thirds of U.S. coal mines operate each year without a single lost work time injury. Investments in technology like proximity detection, atmospheric sensors, equipment automation, and big data help support this goal.
Recent studies show advances in mining technologies enhance employee safety. Occupational health initiatives aim to improve the working environment. Operations also encourage and provide regular health screenings for miners and have led research regarding best preventative health practices while in the mines.
Coal mining is a highly sophisticated industry, employing engineers, geologists, and technicians dedicated to safety, teamwork, and responsible operations. Many positions require a bachelor’s or master’s degree. The coal industry seeks to provide training and career development opportunities, along with competitive compensation and benefits, including paid leave and 401k programs.
The Environment
Regulations in the U.S. require the coal mining industry to adopt the well-known mitigation hierarchy. That is, mine plans are developed to avoid, minimize, and mitigate environmental impacts. Extending this approach, the industry restores mined land with the goal of meeting or exceeding pre-mining baseline conditions. Land reclamation is a top priority, repurposing space for commercial, residential, agriculture, forestry, wildlife habitat, and recreation.
Aspirations for Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Reduction
To achieve global aspirational goals for GHG reduction, the investment in new technologies to reduce or mitigate emissions is massive and still requires research and development to render many of these technologies commercially viable, from both an economic and a technical standpoint. With this in mind, industry leaders are actively investing in the development, optimization, and deployment of technologies such as Carbon Capture, Use, and Storage (CCUS) and methane mitigation that will support economy-wide decarbonization over decades to come.
Protecting natural resources is an industry imperative. Beginning in the initial stages of project planning, mine operators conduct assessments to identify and evaluate sensitive species and critical habitats so that avoidance and mitigation measures can be incorporated into facility engineering and design. During mining, operators seek opportunities to reduce reliance on resources through best management practices such as wastewater recycling. Throughout a mine’s lifecycle and continuing for years after mining is complete, extensive monitoring is conducted to confirm that operators have achieved success criteria for site restoration.
Renewable power requires approximately ten times more land area than fossil fuels per unit of power produced. This surprising reality requires serious consideration as we develop future energy policies. To reach goals for renewable energy use, the IEA is estimating the supply of nickel, graphite, and lithium will need to increase by 1900%, 2500%, and 4200% respectively. This will require an enormous increase in mining and industrial activity, as well as large amounts of fossil fuels to extract, process, and transport these materials.
A transition to renewable energy will occur over decades, and even the most aggressive scenarios for a net-zero economy by 2050 acknowledge that coal will continue to be utilized. When used sustainably and equipped with emissions mitigation technologies like Carbon Capture, Use, and Storage (CCUS), coal will complement other sources of energy while continuing to be used in metallurgical and industrial applications that promote sustainable infrastructure development.
Not So FastTM is an awareness campaign aiming to inform the public, corporate leaders, and U.S. policymakers about the economic hurdles, technical challenges, and societal consequences of moving away too quickly from fossil-based natural resources, like coal, in favor of intermittent sources of energy like wind and solar power. The campaign considers the tradeoffs and timing of this transition in light of coal’s continuing contributions to our quality of life, energy security, the reliability of our electrical grid, and its key role in reducing global poverty. These benefits, along with coal’s use as an important raw material for applications and innovations extending well beyond electricity generation, are openly examined as we strive to move society forward.
CONSOL Energy is committed to meeting the nation's and world's energy demands by focusing on solutions that achieve energy security while finding ways to responsibly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
