Coal discomfort: Anthracite shortage chills Pennsylvania homeowners
David Naugler
From:
http://www3.cjad.com/content/cp_article.asp?id=/global_feeds/CanadianPress/BusinessNews/b02279A.htm
Coal discomfort: Anthracite shortage chills Pennsylvania homeowners
Updated at 12:20 on February 27, 2005, EST.
POTTSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - How's this for irony: Pennsylvania sits atop
seven billion tons of anthracite coal, but consumers who use it for
home heating have been having a tough time getting it this winter.
Coal yards in Schuylkill County, America's biggest
anthracite-producing area, say they are rationing coal to existing
customers and telling new ones to look elsewhere.
"I've been burning coal for 20 years, and this is the first year I've
had any trouble getting it," said George Watts, of Dillsburg, who uses
coal in his home and business.
The culprit is lack of production. Most coal for home heating comes
from underground mines, and the number of working anthracite mines is
steadily dwindling.
Mining companies say it's getting harder to earn a profit because of
the increased cost of worker's compensation insurance, along with
stagnant prices for their hard coal - as opposed to soaring global
prices for coking coal used in steelmaking.
But most of their ire is directed at the federal mine inspectors who
they say are hassling them out of existence. It's a long-running
battle that's resulted in the closure of scores of mines.
The shortage potentially affects thousands of homeowners who still
heat with anthracite, a hard coal mined only in eastern Pennsylvania.
Some worry that if the shortage persists, they'll have to convert to a
more expensive kind of heat, like oil or gas.
Candice Craig has more basic concerns. Her coal hopper was nearly
empty a few weeks ago, and with the Northeast in a deep freeze she
worried about keeping her two-year-old daughter warm. The yard where
Craig usually buys her coal said it had none to sell her. Other
retailers also turned her down.
Craig finally found a retailer willing to sell her a grade of
anthracite called undersized rice, which burns more quickly than the
larger size she typically gets. She burned through nearly $200 worth
of coal in two weeks, straining the household budget.
"You wonder how they can have a shortage," Craig said. "We are the
coal capital of Pennsylvania and there is no coal here."
Evidence of a shortage is so far, anecdotal, but wholesalers,
retailers, miners and consumers say there's not enough.
"There are still some folks who are heating their homes with coal and
they are having a hard time purchasing the product," said Paul Hummel,
chief of the state Bureau of Deep Mine Safety.
In Schuylkill County, northwest of Philadelphia in the centre of the
anthracite industry, coal processors say they are churning out far
less than normal.
The problem for consumers is largely confined to Pennsylvania, home to
nine of the 10 counties with the highest number of households using
coal for heating, according to census data. Fifteen per cent of
Schuylkill County households use coal.
DiRenzo Coal Co., a processing plant that sells directly to the
public, has been giving priority to customers who rely on coal as
their sole source of heat. But general manager Mike DiRenzo said it's
tough to tell whether people are being truthful.
"It is a juggling act that no one wants to deal with," he says.
"It shouldn't be like this in Pennsylvania, especially right in the
middle of the coalfield."
With demand healthy, why not simply boost production?
Although economic conditions play a big role, miners are quick to
blame the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, whose inspectors
have been citing anthracite mines with increased frequency.
Miners say the federal law dealing with mine safety is geared toward
bituminous coal - softer coal that is mined in over half the country
and fuels most coal-fired power plants; they want laws that make sense
for anthracite mining.
MSHA began stepping up enforcement of federal law after a new
management team from the bituminous coalfields was installed in the
agency's Wilkes-Barre, Pa., office. Federal violations shot up 60 per
cent between 2000 and 2003, while citations by state inspectors - who
apply different standards to anthracite and bituminous mines -
declined.
"Our own government is stabbing us in the back and putting us out of
business, and we're not big enough for people to care," said Larry
Graver, a fifth-generation coal miner who left the mines to work at a
processing plant.
"Folks are getting frozen pipes," says Cindy Rothermel, who operates
an underground mine with her husband, Randy.
"It all boils down to MSHA closing the mines."
John Correll, deputy assistant secretary of MSHA, said in a statement
that enforcement has helped drive down fatalities.
Vendicar Decarian
"David Naugler" <dnau...@sfu.ca> wrote in message
news:c6bcfffa.05022...@posting.google.com...
> "I've been burning coal for 20 years, and this is the first year I've
> had any trouble getting it," said George Watts, of Dillsburg, who uses
> coal in his home and business.
London fog killed 4,000
-----------------------
-David Kendall-
Never again, say air quality experts in Britain, never again will
4,000 citizens die from a London fog.
That figure is the conservative estimate - some say 8,000 - of how
many Londoners coughed, choked, turned blue with Cyanosis, and breathed
their last breath 40 years ago, in December 1952.
Starting Dec. 4, a thick atmospheric fog rolled over London and the
Thames valley, then stopped dead.
It was below freezing, dead calm. The damp chill seeped into every
crevice, under doors and through ill-fitted windows. People began
emptying their coal scuttles into thousands of fireplaces.
Dark sulfurous smoke poured into the fog, staining it a putrid
mustard hue, brewing up a deadly gas that invaded the lungs of the
elderly, the bronchial, the asthmatic, and the weak hearted.
Air as thick as pea soup
The pea-soup thickened daily, held motionless by a lid of warm air
passing above - a thermal inversion.
A dark oily film coated china appliances and linen.
Ambulances inched through the streets with a guide on foot ahead
holding a blazing torch aloft. Milk delivery stopped and infants went
hungry.
Idling vehicles caught in traffic jams puffed more poison into the
soupy air.
People lined up at hospitals. Then, they began lining up at
undertakers.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill assured the populace by radio that
the filthy air didn't contain radioactive particles from atomic
experiments.
Visiting Canadian prime minister Louis St. Laurent escaped by driving
slowly to stay with Churchill outside London.
After four days, a westerly wind ended the paralyzing dim-out, but the
damage had been done and the dying continued for weeks.
aozo...@aol.com
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14006637&BRD=2311&PAG=461&dept_id=482260&rfi=6
Production time and competition are factors
By Rob Wheary, Staff Writer 02/22/2005
Email to a friend Printer-friendly
ro...@newsitem.com
MAHANOY CITY - Danny Blaschak said the time to obtain permits and the
rising cost of other fuels have had an impact on local coal production.
Blaschak, co-owner of Blaschak Coal Co. in Mahanoy City, which also
conducts mining operations in the Shamokin area, said the shortage of
anthracite relates mostly to time.
"There is plenty of coal in Pennsylvania, but it's not a liquid
form that we can just turn on a spigot and have it flowing to those who
need it," he said. "There is a process that has to be gone through
to make it ready for consumption. That translates into added production
time, and we are trying to meet the demand."
The company, which recently reopened one of its mining sites along
Route 125 outside of Shamokin, is trying to keep up with the orders
coming from residents and businesses.
"What happened is there were a lot of businesses in the industrial
area that were importing tons of coal from China, and it put the local
coal economy into a depressed state," Blaschak said. "Once China
came out and said that it was being depleted in all their natural
resources, it forced steel and other industries to look elsewhere for
coal, and now the supply is not meeting the demand."
Meanwhile, residential customers had turned to cheaper sources for
heat, but that is changing, too, and some are coming back to coal.
"When oil was 75 cents a gallon, everyone was using it, but then when
oil prices started going up and the war put the prices through the
ceiling, people started going back to coal, which brings up the demand.
If there is a shortage, it will only be for the short term."
Despite the problems, Blaschak assures there is no coal shortage.
"We opened up an abandoned mine for digging, but the permit process
took 18 months," he said. Since that, his personnel have been digging
for "a solid month" on the Northumberland County and haven't hit
coal yet.
"But my engineers assure me that it is there," he said. "The good
news is that we did make shipments on time and fully. I like to think
that we left no one without product."
zzbu...@netscape.net
David Naugler wrote:
> With the new ice age, coal will be worth more than diamonds.
>
> From:
>
http://www3.cjad.com/content/cp_article.asp?id=/global_feeds/CanadianPress/BusinessNews/b02279A.htm
>
> Coal discomfort: Anthracite shortage chills Pennsylvania homeowners
> Updated at 12:20 on February 27, 2005, EST.
>
> POTTSVILLE, Pa. (AP) - How's this for irony: Pennsylvania sits atop
> seven billion tons of anthracite coal, but consumers who use it for
> home heating have been having a tough time getting it this winter.
That's not surprising, at all. If you've
never seen a Pennsylvania coal field,
they closed a lot of them down 30 years
or more years ago decades ago, and
starting building Nuclear Power Plants,
because idiots like New Yorkers owned the coal fields.
It used be to ironic if anybody who
lived in Pennsylvania had coal in
the winter.
> Coal yards in Schuylkill County, America's biggest
> anthracite-producing area, say they are rationing coal to existing
> customers and telling new ones to look elsewhere.
>
> "I've been burning coal for 20 years, and this is the first year I've
> had any trouble getting it," said George Watts, of Dillsburg, who
uses
> coal in his home and business.
>
> The culprit is lack of production. Most coal for home heating comes
> from underground mines, and the number of working anthracite mines is
> steadily dwindling.
>
> Mining companies say it's getting harder to earn a profit because of
> the increased cost of worker's compensation insurance, along with
> stagnant prices for their hard coal - as opposed to soaring global
> prices for coking coal used in steelmaking.
>
> But most of their ire is directed at the federal mine inspectors who
> they say are hassling them out of existence. It's a long-running
> battle that's resulted in the closure of scores of mines.
>
> The shortage potentially affects thousands of homeowners who still
> heat with anthracite, a hard coal mined only in eastern Pennsylvania.
> Some worry that if the shortage persists, they'll have to convert to
a
> more expensive kind of heat, like oil or gas.
Gas is only more expensive if you live in
Schuylkill County. The Republicans don't like
gas fumes to spoil their scenic view of
Three Mile Island in that area.