CURRENT KNOWLEDGE

Memorial for the mountains www.ilovemountains.org/memorial/ A virtual memorial that uses Google Earth to tell the stories of coalfield residents, and more than 470 mountains destroyed by mountaintopremoval through photos, stories, and interviews.

coal has left us with polluted water, a corrupted political system, poor schools, too many unhealthy people, and a disappearing heritage. And today the destruction is increasing”. Coal companies pay off local politicians to do their bidding and seduce citizens with false promises of jobs and wealth, alleges Blanton. Another resident of the coalfields says, “Coal has been dominant in Appalachian economies for a hundred years now and they are still some of the poorest counties in the US”. As these new oil techniques are explored, Appalachia is at a huge risk. Given that the most accessible coal seams have been mined, the rise in coal consumption would surely doom its future. But the residents of these ‘sacrifice zones’ have now started protesting against increased mining. One group is Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC), which has founded a statewide Canary Project, with the aim of freeing their communities from the domination of the coal industry. A member says, “For years, coal miners would take canaries into the mines to warn of dangerous gases. When the canaries died, the miners knew it was time to get out of the mine. Now, we are the canaries, warning everyone about the dangers of coal before it is too late. We no longer believe the big lie that coal is a cheap source of energy, and we are no longer willing to have our homes and lives sacrificed for coal company profits.” Appala¬chians, declares the group, have joined forces with other environmentalists in calling for environmental justice and a clean energy future for the US and the planet, against those who enjoy wasteful lifestyles and outsource the consequences.

COAL-TO-GAS
A new generation of the US power plants, with two already on-line and a few dozen more proposed as of 2007, will utilise coal gassification process – known as Integrated Gassification Combined-Cycle (IGCC).

THE PROCESS is the same as that used for other carbon-based 'feedstock', such as biomass and waste materials:

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