Oct 28, 2024 3 min read

There can be little doubt that coal has been good for us.

There also can be little doubt that coal has been bad for us.

Coal was vital in fueling all the machinery that came to the fore two centuries ago during the Industrial Revolution. Coal played a role in changing how everyone lived and worked, and has remained crucial for power generation in the many generations since. We wouldn’t have the relatively comfortable and relatively prosperous lives we have today without coal.

But, as everyone in this region knows, it’s punishingly hard and dangerous work to dislodge coal from the ground, and the lives of many miners were cut short as a result of accidents or the diseases that were a byproduct of their jobs. Coal is also a source of pollution, can contaminate water and soil and is a major contributor to global warming. It can be argued that coal is as tied to the 19th century as stovepipe hats, tailcoats and the penny press.

There are signs, though, that use of coal as a source of energy is fading away.

As business writer Rick Shrum details in a story in this edition, natural gas is one of the energy sources that has helped supplant coal, thanks to its cost, accessibility and the fact that it’s cleaner. And here’s another milestone – in April of this year, more energy was generated by wind in America than coal, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The EIA explained, “Generation from coal-fired power plants has the sharpest decline in (our) forecast as a result of growing renewable energy sources, low natural gas prices and continuing retirements of coal-fired plants.”

The Washington Post also reported recently on how the final coal-fired plant in Britain closed at the end of September. It’s a significant milestone because, as the Post noted, Britain is where the coal-powered Industrial Revolution began, and it proves that “major economies can wean themselves off the dirtiest fossil fuel.”

The Associated Press also reported this month about how some coal miners in Romania are being retrained to work in the renewable-energy sector, a task that has become urgent as the former communist state plans to be done with using coal for energy in eight years. Sebastian Tirintica, a 38-year-old miner, told AP, “It’s hard to unglue yourself from something you did your entire life. It’s hard to start again from zero, and not everyone has the strength or courage to do it.”

If it’s any comfort to Tirintica, he should have plenty of companionship working in the renewables industry. Next year, coal will be overtaken by renewables as the greatest source of energy generation if a forecast from the International Energy Agency holds up. The forecast also stated that, in a five-year period from 2022 to 2027, the world would use as much renewable energy as it did in the 20 years that preceded it.

Coal use will not be gone tomorrow. Rachel Gleason, the executive director of the Pennsylvania Coal Alliance, told Shrum that “we are still relevant.” And China and India, the two largest countries in the world, still depend on coal to power their rapidly expanding economies. But it’s now possible to imagine a day when coal will, in fact, not be so relevant.