King Coal Research Articles

In the Shadow of King Coal

In the Shadow of King Coal

Old King Coal

Old King Coal

The Road to Blair Mountain: Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal

The Road to Blair Mountain: Saving a Mine Wars Battlefield from King Coal

Moving to a Green Economy? The Story of an 'Unjust' Transition in the UK

Moving to a Green Economy?The Story of an 'Unjust' Transition in the UK Huw Beynon (bio) and Ray Hudson (bio) Coal played a central part in the discussions at the COP26 conference on climate change held in Glasgow in 2021. Here it was established as the most deadly of the carbon fuels with the future of the planet depending upon its eradication. This was a cause some concern for the leaders of China and India and also for some of the smaller economies strongly linked to the coal expert trade, including Colombia and Australia. It was in this context that considerable thought was given to the need to carefully consider the transition from coal and the need for this to be done in a just manner. Prime Minister Johnson had contributed to this debate by asserting that the UK led the way in this regard. In his view Mrs Thatcher, in her defeat of the National Union of Mineworkers and the early closure of the industry that followed, had given Britain a head start in moving towards a green economy. This, however, was no recipe for others to follow. It was in fact the classic case of an unjust transition, which has had serious, and long-term deleterious effects upon the country's economy and society. It shows others what not to do and, though obtusely, this negative exemplar provides elements for a more positive framework of future policy. The Decline of Coal The famous Labour Party politician Aneurin Bevan once described Britain as the 'island built on coal'. In no other capitalist economy was coal mining so dominant or so vital to all aspects of economic and social life (Britain was virtually a single fuel economy until the middle of the 1950s). In 1920 the industry employed 1.92 million workers and the Miners Federation of Great Britain was by far the largest association of miners in the world. This was the high point of an industry that became known as 'King Coal'. Since then, it has been in decline, gradual at first–there were 700,000 miners when the industry was nationalised in 1947–but then rapidly in two extraordinary periods of contraction. We discuss these fully in our book The Shadow of the Mine. The nationalisation of coal was a long-term aspiration of the miners' union and state ownership consolidated the presence of the newly established National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) within the consultation and conciliation structures of the National Coal Board (NCB). From the beginning the union's deep commitment to the industry's success underpinned a highly cooperative relationship with management. However, this was put under strain when the availability of cheap oil from the Middle East saw governments pressing for a severe reduction in coal output. As a result, the numbers employed by the NCB reduced from 665.000 in 1959 to 290.000 in 1970. The fact that this took place in a period of economic boom and social change eased the many difficulties encountered by miners and their families. Many left, looking for opportunities in the new industries, some moved to the old coalfields by government directive. Redundancy payments were introduced by the new Labour government in 1964 which also eased the transition, as did support with the costs of moving, given to miners who wished to remain in the industry by working in another area. However, the overall policy framework was de rigeur, pushed forward by government at a faster pace than was wanted by the trade unions or the management of the industry. Undoubtedly its success owed much to the general macro-economic circumstances, and the positive sense of social change that encouraged many younger men to look for pastures new. Nevertheless, and in spite of all these positive aspects, these closures left their scars. It damaged belief in the progressive nature of nationalisation and paved the way for a new militancy within the NUM. It also affected the coalfield areas disrupting the post-war pattern of full employment, especially in Wales and the North of England where unemployment levels rose and never fully recovered. Generally, it left some feeling that they had been bullied and pushed too...

Piped Gas Fuels GT Power Plant Growth

Abstract In the last 10 years the growth of America’s natural gas fueled, gas turbine power plants have flourished in its lower 48 states. They are replacing older coal-fueled steam turbine power plants, ending a century’s-old dominance of King Coal, for the nation’s electricity production.

Rise of British Petroaesthetics in King Coal’s Levee

Rise of British Petroaesthetics in King Coal’s Levee

Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilizaton in Central Appalachia

Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilizaton in Central Appalachia

Farewell, King Coal: From Industrial Triumph to Climatic Disaster

Farewell, King Coal: From Industrial Triumph to Climatic Disaster

CCUS: Solving the conundrum of decoupling sustainable economic growth and CO2 emissions

COP-24 left us with the important legacy of a rulebook for putting the Paris Agreement into practice, particularly in terms of measuring and reporting CO2 emissions. However, countries failed to agree voluntary market mechanisms, and more importantly, the imperative of staying below the 1.5°C of the IPCC report. Globally, in 2017 renewable power contributed to 70% of net additions to power generating capacity with estimated 178 gigawatts added.1 New additions to solar capacity were greater than combined additions in coal, natural gas and nuclear power. However, CO2 energy-related emissions increased 1.4%, primarily due to global economic growth of 3.7%. The UK has successfully managed to curb CO2 emissions by 43% compared to 1990 levels, and therefore, making good progress towards the 80% reduction target by 2050.2 This is especially significant considering that during the same period the UK economy grew by over 70% (above the G7 average). So, have we solved the conundrum of decoupling economic growth and CO2 emissions? Decarbonisation of the power sector with a shift from coal to gas is largely responsible for the UK emissions reduction, with 75% reductions since 2012 coming from the power sector. It is clear, though, that further reductions require decarbonisation of other sectors, particularly heat, industry and transport. The UK Spring Statement 2019 introduced the Future Homes Standard, mandating the end of fossil-fuel heating systems in all new houses from 2025, and this has been met with disbelief in the construction sector. There is consensus that meeting the global climate ambitions of the Paris Agreement without jeopardising economic growth requires that we take a holistic approach to decarbonisation, particularly to incentivise decarbonisation of energy intensive industries.3 For example, existing 45Q tax legislation in the United States provides incentives in reducing CO2 emissions to power plants and industrial facilities and offering tax credits of $50 per tonne of CO2 stored and $35 per tonne for CO2 utilised. It is clear also that policy parity is needed across energy technologies.4 The UK has recently set up the Clean Growth Strategy aiming to grow national income, while cutting CO2 emissions.5 The UK CCUS Cost Challenge Taskforce reported that CCUS can play a critical role in reducing emissions across electricity, as well as heating, industry and transport.3 In addition, CCUS can also improve productivity and competitiveness in a future low carbon economy. It is also clear that a ‘no CCS pathway’ would result in a more costly option to achieve the required targets. For example, for the UK to decarbonise electricity without CCS, it would require low-carbon generation to be more than quadrupled between now and 2050. The deployment of CCUS in industrial clusters can help drive lower costs. These clusters are areas with a number of industrial sites (e.g. chemicals, iron/steel, food/drink, cement, refineries etc) and will benefit from sharing infrastructure as well as knowledge. Industrial decarbonisation is key to achieve the 80% reduction target as around 25% of UK emissions come from industry. The UK Industrial Strategy has set out Grand Challenges to maximise the advantages for UK industry from the global shift to clean growth. This includes establishing at least one low-carbon cluster by 2030 and a net-zero carbon industrial cluster by 2040.6 King Coal's abdication is only a partial fix for decarbonisation of the power sector. It will not solve the conundrum of decoupling sustainable economic growth and CO2 emissions. CCUS does! Prof M. Mercedes Maroto-Valer, FRSE, FIChemE, FRSC, FRSA R. Buchan Chair in Sustainable Energy Engineering Director Research Centre for Carbon Solutions (RCCS) Assistant Deputy Principal (Research & Innovation) Heriot-Watt University

King Coal Rules: Accepting or Refusing Coal Dependency in Victorian Britain

Fears of coal shortage emerged in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, when coal became not only the basis of British people’s daily lives, but also the staple of their economy. At the beginning of the 1870s, these fears intensified, following the publication of Stanley Jevons’s book The Coal Question in 1865 and a very long and difficult coal famine. This made it more complicated to put aside the fears of shortage. That nothing was finally done to tackle this issue can be explained by a strong faith in science (to solve all problems) and in free trade (even though it began to be fiercely contested), but also by a sense of doom: getting out of a system entirely based on coal demanded efforts that seemed overwhelming compared to the immediate dangers of shortage or even pollution.

The Many Lives of Cy Endfield: Film Noir, the Blacklist and Zulu by Brian Neve (review)

Reviewed by: The Many Lives of Cy Endfield: Film Noir, the Blacklist and Zulu by Brian Neve Bernard F. Dick The Many Lives of Cy Endfield: Film Noir, the Blacklist and Zulu Brian Neve Wisconsin Film Studies, Madison: U of Wisconsin Press, 277 pages One would have to be a scholar of the blacklist to speak authoritatively about Cy Endfield. Although Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote appreciatively about him in "Pages from the Endfield File" (Film Comment, November-December 1993), Endfield is largely unknown except to B movie buffs. He never experienced the notoriety of the Hollywood Ten or was granted the privilege accorded to Carl Foreman, whom HUAC allowed to testify about himself without naming names, which in 1956 was unprecedented. When Enfield decided to purge himself in 1960, he was not that fortunate. To those who have written about HUAC's witnesses, friendly and otherwise, Endfield is just a name. Thanks to Neve, a name has been given a life, and a shadow has taken on substance in this compelling narrative of a Scranton, Pennsylvania native who attended Yale without completing a degree, joined the Young Communist League and the John Reed Club, became involved in radical theatre without being a radical himself (compared to Fascism, he found Communism "least bad" [22]), wrote for radio and then film, directed shorts at MGM, and finally graduated to features, beginning on Poverty Row with Gentleman Joe Palooka (Monogram, 1946). The Many Lives of Cy Endfield reads like a Bildungsroman. As a Scranton native myself, I found Neve's reconstruction of Endfield's boyhood and adolescence quite accurate. The city, where King Coal reigned and railroad tracks were a line of social demarcation, would spur anyone with ambition to leave. To Endfield, Scranton was "a contradiction to everything that I have made himself and am making myself" (25). It was at Yale where the self-made Endfield acquired a political conscience and found a kindred spirit in Israel Shapiro, later known as screenwriter Paul Jarrico, who was more committed to the Party than was Endfield himself. Like many young intellectuals, Endfield joined the Party because he was disturbed by the economic disparity between the classes in the early 1930s. But his career took precedence over his politics, which he managed to work into his films, starting with The Argyle Secrets (1948), which revealed the existence of war profiteers who did business with the Nazis during World War II. He went further in A Sound of Fury (1950), a study in mob violence that culminated in an off-screen lynching. That same year saw the release of The Underground Story, revered by film noir aficionados and left-wingers. For the rest, it was a hardboiled melodrama about a black maid falsely accused of murder. Interestingly, a white actress, Mary Anderson, played the maid but was photographed in such a way that she appeared to be of mixed race. Even so, the film exposed the workings of a corrupt system that would allow a false allegation to be lodged against someone who would not be believed because she was a person of color. Those were Endfield's kind of films. And those would have been the kinds the Hollywood Left would have continued to produce had the blacklist not intervened. When it did, rather than deal with the inevitable subpoena, Endfield became an expat, working in London where he made several films, none under his own name. In 1960, Endfield decided to return to the States and appear before HUAC, and even though this was the year Otto Preminger announced that he had hired the blacklisted Dalton Trumbo to adapt Leon Uris's Exodus and Howard Fast's Spartacus, these were not easy times for him. The blacklist may have ended for Trumbo, but not for Endfield, who spoke openly to the committee about his Communist past and the comrades he had known. It was a sobering testimony, neither groveling nor arrogant, but that of a man eager to work at his trade. [End Page 89] Neve includes Endfield's Zulu (1964) in his subtitle and is clearly a fan of the movie, narrated by Richard Burton, which is a good indication that it is...

1075 From old king coal to novel therapeutics for inflammatory skin diseases: The aryl hydrocarbon Receptor as a therapeutic target

Topical application of coal tar is one of the oldest dermatological therapies. Despite its longstanding clinical use and efficacy, the molecular mechanism of coal tar therapy was unknown until our discovery that coal tar activates the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR). We also reported on the physiological role for the AHR in maintaining epidermal homeostasis. Now we screened novel compounds and existing drugs for 1) AHR activity using a luciferase reporter system, CYP1A1 enzyme activity and protein expression, 2) potential therapeutic effects in a 3D skin model for atopic dermatitis, and 3) genotoxicity by the Ames test. We identified three different classes of AHR ligands as novel candidate drugs with therapeutic activity. Active compounds included carboxamide derivatives, benzimidazoisoquinolines, and indazole derivatives. All compounds reduced the Th2 cytokine-mediated hallmarks of atopic dermatitis as witnessed by reduced epidermal thickeness, spongiosis and apoptosis, and increased levels of epidermal differentiation genes and proteins like involucrin, filaggrin and loricrin. Epxression of chemoattractants CCL2 and CCL26 in keratinocytes was significantly reduced in AHR-ligand treated cultures. The low CYP1A1 enzyme activity induced by the investigated compounds may indicate a low risk of toxicity especially since the Ames test was also negative. These results clearly point towards a pivotal role for the AHR in dampening inflammatory events in keratinocytes induced by atopic dermatitis-associated cytokines. The development of much needed novel topical drugs for atopic dermatitis may therefore be directed towards targeting the AHR in the skin. Since we found structurally diverse ligands to have similar therapeutic activities, the proposed ligand promiscuity of the AHR may be less important as previously thought. Instead, the level and duration of receptor activation may be key for the development of novel therapeutic AHR ligands.

Energy and Sustainability–The Story of Doctor Copper and King Coal (Barry Golding and Suzanne D. Golding)

Energy and Sustainability–The Story of Doctor Copper and King Coal (Barry Golding and Suzanne D. Golding)

Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia. By Shannon Elizabeth Bell. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2016. x + 329 pp. Illustrations, maps, tables, graphs, appendices, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth $60.00, paper $32.00, e-book $23.00.

<i>Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia</i>. By Shannon Elizabeth Bell. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2016. x + 329 pp. Illustrations, maps, tables, graphs, appendices, notes, bibliography, and index. Cloth $60.00, paper $32.00, e-book $23.00.

Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia

Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia

Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia

Fighting King Coal: The Challenges to Micromobilization in Central Appalachia

Fighting for King Coal’s Crown: Business Actors in the US Coal and Utility Industries

Over the last two decades, business actors have received growing attention in global environmental politics. In the context of climate change, scholars have demonstrated the capacity of business actors to directly shape outcomes at the national, international, and transnational levels. However, very little work has focused exclusively on business actors in the coal and utility industries. This is surprising, given that resistance from these industries could delay or even derail government attempts to address climate change. Accordingly, this article focuses directly on the preferences of business actors in the coal and utility industries. Drawing on interviews with executives across the US energy sector, it considers business preferences on two of the most important attempts by the Obama administration to limit emissions from coal: the Waxman-Markey bill and the Clean Power Plan. In doing so, it provides new insights about the preferences of these actors and the divisions within these industries that could be exploited by policy-makers and activists seeking to enact climate change regulations.

Justus S. Stearns: Michigan Pine King and Kentucky Coal Baron, 1845–1933 by Michael W. Nagle

Justus S. Stearns: Michigan Pine King and Kentucky Coal Baron, 1845–1933 by Michael W. Nagle

Comments: Facing the Future

Editor's column Many of the top-level executives attending the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (ATCE) in Dubai see the oil and gas industry rising from a market that has bottomed out and is on the rebound. Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Amin H. Nasser said the industry is in “recovery mode” and gradually reaching a supply/demand balance. Likewise, Schlumberger CEO Paal Kibsgaard said the market had reached bottom and was rising and requires more spending to insure against a global supply shortage in a couple of years. Although the previous decade had seemed like a golden age for oil with rising demand in Asia and new sources of supply from North America, the industry proved again that it is a cyclical business, with busts often following booms. Some believe that cyclicality, despite the pain, is a good thing. Jim Krane, the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow in Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, says price cycles are inevitable in the oil and gas business and that has helped the industry remain competitive. “Price swings make companies disciplined and resilient,” Krane wrote last month in a Forbes online blog. “At the same time, they help fossil fuels retain their edge against competing technology. At one time or another, oil and gas have dispatched competitors such as whale oil, candles, steam engines, electric vehicles (in the 1900s), and solar panels. King coal is the latest victim. Nuclear power may be next.” When oil prices are too high, it encourages the development and use of alternative forms of energy, whether traditional ones such as coal, or new forms such as wind and renewable power. The current downturn has caused hydraulic fracturing techniques to become more efficient and service companies to lower their costs, says Krane, at the same time that oil and gas have become cheaper and more attractive to consumers. Although use of alternative forms of energy is growing, supported by governments concerned with climate change, most executives in the industry seem confident that fossil fuels will be the dominant energy source for years to come. But with government backing, which often comes with subsidies, the oil and gas industry has entered an era of competition with other energy sources whether prices are high or not. Topics at ATCE have always been a good barometer of the state of the industry, whether it was the arrival of new environmental regulations in the 1970s to the wave of mergers and acquisitions in the late 1990s. And executives at ATCE this year acknowledged the many challenges currently facing the industry. With panel session topics such as “E&amp;P 2.0: Shaping the Future,” “Transforming the Industry to be Fit at 50,” “Boosting Efficiency in E&amp;P,” and “Collaboration 2.0: Reinventing the E&amp;P Industry,” executives discussed what the industry will need to do going forward to be successful. Both international and national oil companies said they were bent on improving operations, efficiency, and innovation while controlling costs. They are betting that the industry will remain resilient in spite of the inevitable sharp price swings and competition from other energy sources. JPT

Vom Verlierer zum Gewinner – und zurück

This article traces the cyclical trajectory of the British coal miner from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. Within less than one generation, the miner turned from doomed industrial proletarian to self-assured embodiment of the future back to doomed proletarian. The renaissance of King Coal in the 1970s proved short-lived, and yet it needs to be taken seriously if one is to understand the nature of the coal strike of 1984/85 and the rundown of the industry that followed. Indeed, the figure of the miner offers a lens for reconfiguring our understanding of the 1970s and British contemporary history more generally, as the article seeks to demonstrate both empirically and conceptually.