January 10, 1991

Everyone likes cheap energy. I live in a region where electrical energy produced by coal-fired generating plants is inexpensive. People here and in adjacent regions have enjoyed cheap electricity for more than 50 years. But a look below the surface reveals that this apparently cheap electricity has occurred at a terrible environmental cost. What has happened here and in many other parts of the world illustrates vividly that in nature "there can be no free or even cheap lunch" -- one of the primary laws of ecology of the Creator.

The production of "cheap" energy has incurred a massive debt. I call it an "environmental debt." It will take extraordinary financial resources and will-power to repay this debt -- if indeed it can ever be fully repaid.

I would identify six major elements of this environmental debt:

1. The degradation of millions of acres of forest, pasture and cropland. Mining companies discovered earlier this century that the most inexpensive way to get coal for electrical generating was to surface mine it. As machinery became larger and larger, it became easy to devastate the surface resources quickly, get the coal and move on. Reclamation laws were inadequate until 1977 when the U.S. Congress passed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA). By the time this law was passed, much of the environmental debt had already accumulated. In Ohio alone, 470,000 acres of this land, devastated by earlier surface mining, remains unreclaimed. Acreages being reclaimed under SMCRA show costs ranging from $7,000 to $14,000 per acre to restore the land. In one example described in an article in Ohio Farmer (August 15, 1990), the cost to reclaim land exceeded the entire value of the coal removed earlier.

2. The degradation of streams, springs, and water supplies. In addition to the loss of forests and farms, surface mining for coal has taken a large toll on local water ecology. Coal in Ohio is usually found associated with iron and sulfur. When these elements are brought to the surface and discarded, oxidation causes toxic acids to form. Run-off from unreclaimed mines soon finds its way to streams, causing the death of most forms of life. The unstable mine spoils erode easily adding to stream pollution by silting. Water tables are often disturbed by surface mining. Springs and wells become contaminated and acidic. One abandoned lake on our property has a pH of 3.5 (pH 7 is normal). Our spring water has a pH of 5.5. To use it, we have had to install an expensive water conditioning system.

3. The contribution of unreclaimed strip-mined land to global greenhouse warming. Trees and other vegetation naturally remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. CO2 is the chief gas known to cause global warming. Thousands of acres of land mined in the 1940s and '50s are still as barren as the moonscape. We took land like this and planted some 20,000 trees (mostly hardy acid-tolerant conifers) during the past 15 years. Fortunately, we've had a good survival rate (70 percent). 40 to 50 foot pines now stand where previously there was only toxic waste. The coal company owned unreclaimed land next door is still barren. That land is doing nothing to reduce global warming.

4. The contribution of surface-mined coal to acid rain. As noted earlier, the cheap abundant accessible coal around here is laced with sulfur. Sulfur dioxide produced in the combustion of this coal is the chief culprit in the production of acid precipitation. Just 15 miles to our southwest we see the Conesville electric generating plant spewing smoke around the clock every day. The tall, massive smokestacks send pollutants many miles north and east to damage forests, lakes and buildings. But Ohio gets cheap electricity. How will this environmental debt be repaid?

5. The loss of tax base and services necessary for a healthy rural community. As the natural resource base was degraded by surface mining, the tax valuation was also reduced. The degraded land was considered worthless. The loss of tax revenue devastated local community finances. When we bought our 80 acre "farm" (we understood it was one of the better ones in the area before half of it was surface-mined and left unreclaimed in the early 1950s), annual taxes were $70. We've put a lot of time and money into restoration of the place. Now our taxes are more than $1000 per year. We are happy to be able to support local schools, fire departments and other services through these taxes. We wonder about the coal companies who have kept degraded land for years. They are contributing nothing to the local economy. When are they going to pay their environmental debt?

6. The loss of jobs (unemployment). This is closely related to the lack of support for the rural economy and community. When local farms were bought or leased by the coal companies, the number of jobs in mining did not replace the number lost in the beef, timber and farming industries. When the coal ran out the companies moved on, but the unemployed remained. Poverty and hunger became a way of life. Young people moved to the cities, the poor remained.