From the Desk of U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd
Energy Independence and the Future of Coal
Thirty-five percent of the world’s energy, and 95 percent of the energy used for transportation, is derived from oil. The United States possesses only 2 percent of the world’s known supply of oil, making our transportation system deeply reliant on foreign sources. To reduce this potentially dangerous dependence, I have long advocated for a comprehensive and sustainable energy strategy that will result in the production of more domestic energy – production that includes both renewable fuels and our abundant traditional fossil fuels.
Today, the United States imports more than 50 percent of the oil it consumes, and it consumes nearly one quarter of all global oil production. Because the United States is a net importer of oil, substantial reductions in U.S. consumption of oil or increases in domestic production of oil or oil substitutes lower oil prices.
Conversely, when foreign production is curtailed, oil prices climb. Political instability in areas where oil reserves are located can also impact supply in dramatic fashion. The rise and fall of oil prices can have a significant impact on the U.S. economy as well as family budgets.
Oil can be — and has been — used as a tool of political “blackmail” by nations attempting to coerce us to alter our political objectives. In 1973, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced a decision to raise the posted price of oil by 70 percent and Arab oil ministers agreed to an embargo, to cut production by 5 percent, and to continue to cut production over time in 5 percent increments until their economic and political demands were met.
The United States faced another oil crisis in the wake of the Iranian Revolution. The Shah of Iran fled in early 1979, allowing Ayatollah Khomeini to gain control. Protests disrupted Iranian oil production. When oil exports resumed, they were inconsistent and at lower volumes, forcing prices up.
Both of these events resulted in higher gasoline prices, limited gas rationing and, most memorably, long lines of people waiting to buy gas for their cars.
The implications of U.S. foreign oil dependence stretch far beyond consumers’ pain at the pump, however. A number of oil producing countries use oil revenues to support terrorist groups and organizations, are hostile to the United States and its allies, and represent emerging security threats to the United States.
The U.S. military’s reliance on fuels derived from foreign oil imports also represents a defense vulnerability that could adversely affect our national security if this supply is cut off. As a major consumer of energy, it is imperative for the Department of Defense to explore alternative sources of fuel and electricity.
So critical is this need to maintain energy independence that the U.S. Air Force has mandated that all of its aircraft be qualified to fly on synthetic fuel by 2011.The commercial aviation industry has similar interests in securing alternative sources for its aviation fuels. Other military services have developed alternative energy strategies and the recently released Department of Defense 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review states, “We must continue incorporating geostrategic and operational energy considerations into force planning, requirements development, and acquisition processes.”
Recent headlines have touted new emphasis on, and investment in, renewable energy development. This is both necessary and admirable, but it still will be many years before renewable energy sources can meet even the existing demand for energy in the United States. Believing that coal will continue to play a vital role in meeting the energy needs for the United States, I have worked hard over the years to secure funding that will expedite the development of alternative energy sources and deploy technologies that consume our finite existing fuels as cleanly and efficiently as possible. In the future, some of that investment may result in new processes that use coal as the feedstock for a new class of alternative transportation fuels.
Coal has played a critical role in the U.S. economy since railroads converted to coal locomotives in the 1830s. Worldwide, compared with all other fossil fuels, coal is the most abundant and widely distributed across the continents. Our borders encompass close to 30 percent of the world’s known reserves of coal. Currently, coal generates almost 50 percent of the electricity used in this nation. Significant segments of the economies of a number of states rely at least in part on the use of coal as a fuel. Twenty U.S. states are involved in the coal industry. At current rates of production, the Department of Energy estimates that known coal reserves could continue to power the world for more than a century. These simple facts suggest that coal will continue to drive U.S. economic health and growth for many decades to come. That is why I have long supported initiatives to provide for cleaner coal technologies, carbon capture and sequestration, and the management of coal extraction in a safe and environmentally responsible way.
Given the abundance of U.S. coal reserves, it is reasonable to assume that coal-derived liquid fuels must play an increased role in meeting future U.S. energy needs. The fact that this could represent a significant domestic source of fuel is of particular value to ensuring future energy independence and energy security.
Research has demonstrated that coal can be converted into liquid fuels that are as clean to burn as other conventional sources and contain zero sulfur. This is accomplished through direct liquefaction or through conversion into a gas that is then converted to a liquid fuel. Unconverted gas from the indirect process can also be combusted in a gas turbine to generate electric power; or, coal-conversion plants can be modified to direct the synthesis gas to a water-gas-shift reactor and a hydrogen separation device to produce pure hydrogen, should hydrogen become the fuel of the future, as some envision.
Recent energy legislation has complicated the ability to use traditional methods of converting coal to synthetic liquid fuel capable of being used in transportation technologies. Addressing climate concerns, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 requires that lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production and combustion of the fuel supplied in federal contracts be less than or equal to emissions from fuel produced from conventional petroleum sources.
Existing technologies coupled with carbon capture and sequestration will provide one important solution. But additional research to develop cleaner and more economical methods of producing synthetic liquid fuel will keep the United States on the leading edge of this new wave of energy transformation.
To meet this challenge, in 2007 and 2008, I secured passage of legislation providing over $9 million in research funding for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to challenge the scientific and business communities to develop methods to economically extract energy from coal in the form of liquid fuels using innovative coal-to-liquid conversion technologies that are environmentally friendly and cost competitive with petroleum based fuels.
The goals set by DARPA in the development of an innovative approach to coal-to-liquid conversion is a user cost of less than $3.00 per gallon for JP-8 aviation fuel (comparable to the current cost of oil-derived aviation fuel); zero carbon dioxide emissions during production; scalable to 100,000 barrels per-day; and, with capital costs of $15,000 barrel per day capacity.
As a result of this modest investment, a variety of companies and universities throughout the United States are competing to develop methods to economically extract liquid fuels from coal using a variety of methods — while producing zero carbon emissions during manufacturing.
While these research efforts are still in the very early stages, I remain convinced that by putting our best and brightest to work on this and other similar projects, the United States is taking concrete steps toward eventual energy independence and long-term economic prosperity.
“...it is reasonable to assume that coal-derived liquid fuels must play an increased role in meeting future U.S. energy needs.”
U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd has represented West Virginia in the Senate since 1959, making him the longest-serving Senator in U.S. history. Before taking his seat in the Senate, he served in the House of Representatives, the West Virginia House of Delegates and the West Virginia State Senate. He has never lost an election.
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From the Desk of U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd
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