Coal is the way to go for new power

With a potential boom looming for northeastern B.C., it's up to the government to dispel the old myths about coal

Editorial
Vancouver Sun

The idea of using coal as an energy source invokes an image of Dickensian England with black smoke billowing from smokestacks into an already blackened sky.

Whatever ambience that picture creates, it doesn't accurately depict how modern coal-fired power plants work. For the sake of rural British Columbia, which is in dire need of an economic upturn, it's incumbent upon the province to dispel those myths that have made coal the black sheep of the energy industry.

After all, while electricity generated by nuclear power is declining in Canada, and while the supply of hydro power remains flat, demand for electricity is expected to rise dramatically. And coal power could fill the gap.

But the primary demand for power in the next decade will come not from Canada or the United States, but from developing countries, particularly China and other Asian nations.

Thanks to boom in that country's economy, China is building 10 million new homes a year, which is equivalent to the total number of homes in Canada. Since the homes are reinforced with steel, and since coal is relatively cost-effective, there's an enormous demand for steelmaking coal.

And it's not just about homes: The Asian marketplace also has considerable demand for cars, refrigerators, stoves and other appliance that are manufactured with metallurgical or steelmaking coal. And there's no sign that such demand will decrease any time soon.

That's enormously good news to B.C., which has substantial coal deposits -- about 21 per cent of the global market for metallurgical coal -- and it exports an average of 26 million tonnes of coal a year.

Still, we're not operating at full capacity, and as demand increases, it's imperative that B.C. ratchet up its coal production.

That's where northeast B.C. comes in. The area is capable of producing tens of millions of tonnes of coal a year within the next few years, and that will provide up to a thousand new jobs in a region that desperately needs them.

In the 1980s, the province sunk $3 billion into coal development, including the construction of an electrified BC Rail line between Tumbler Ridge and Chetwynd, and a coal terminal in Prince Rupert. Yet the rail line was shut down 18 months ago, and it looked like the province's investment was yet another government boondoggle.

Now, thanks to increasing demand for coal, CN Rail, which took over BC Rail, plans to get the line operational. And changes to the Coal Act to streamline the application for new mines will also help. By facilitating what could be one of the biggest booms to the rural B.C. economy in many years, Victoria could ultimately recoup its investment.

Yet the entire project could falter unless the province informs the public that new technologies have made coal a relatively environmentally safe solution to the world's energy needs.

The combustion of coal does create many pollutants including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and particulate matters. But new technologies have reduced markedly the environmentally unfriendly aspects of coal-fired power plants.

For example, the United States, which relies on coal for more than 50 per cent of its electricity, has invested more than $50 billion US in new technologies in the past three decades and has experienced impressive results:

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, sulphur dioxide emissions have decreased by 70 per cent, nitrous oxides by 48 per cent and particulate matters by 94 per cent in the past 30 years.

Further, new technologies actually allow us to generate electricity from coal with no combustion. And there now exists the potential to use coal-bed methane, of which Canada has estimated reserves of 2,500 trillion cubic feet, to generate energy without harming the environment.

Far from creating a Dickensian climate from coast to coast, coal can, therefore, be viewed as an environmentally friendly equivalent of wind power and solar energy.

And if the province gets that message out, it could also help turn the economy of rural B.C. around.

© The Vancouver Sun 2004