MOREHEAD - If you want to start a fight about global warming, go to coal country.
That was clear Friday at the East Kentucky Leadership Conference. It wasn’t a fight, really, but a spirited debate about what global warming could mean for the coal-rich region and how Kentucky should respond to inevitable change.
It was the kind of discussion that made this 21st annual conference worth attending.
At its best, the East Kentucky Leadership Conference is like a big family reunion where people get together to talk about the future instead of the past. Everyone knows the touchy subjects and all of the back stories. Most also know which cousins are smart and which uncles are crazy.
It helps that the conference always takes place in late April. When the hills are ablaze with redbud and dogwoods, no problem seems too big to solve.
On this year’s agenda were all of the usual subjects: health, education and economic development, plus a session with the curious title, “Adventure Tourism: An Idea Whose Time Has Come.”
While it wasn’t on the official agenda, there also was plenty of discussion about the plague of drug abuse.
When talk turned to coal, nobody, thankfully, tried to argue that global warming is a myth, or that we’re not making it worse by burning coal.
Cheap power threatened
The world’s changing energy picture doesn’t bode well for Kentucky, said Jim Lamb, the senior vice president of power supply for East Kentucky Power Cooperative in Winchester.
About 96 percent of Kentucky’s electricity is generated by burning coal. That has given Kentucky some of the nation’s lowest power rates. But as concerns about climate change prompt more restrictions on coal-burning, power rates are sure to rise
Many at the conference - including Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, a Hazard physician, and House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins of Sandy Hook, who works for a coal company, touted the possibilities of new technology to convert coal to liquid fuel that burns cleaner than oil.
Coal companies are pressing for federal and state tax breaks to develop that technology.
John Hennen, a history professor at Morehead State University, said it’s fine if coal companies want to invest their own money in such research, but public money should be used to explore alternatives to fossil fuels.
“I think a (public) commitment to coal conversion technology would be a disaster,” he said, raising eyebrows around the room.
Hennen noted that converting coal to liquid fuel requires massive amounts of water and produces more carbon dioxide than burning it. While there’s a lot of talk about capturing that carbon and storing it, nobody has shown it can be done on a large scale.
Investing beyond coal
Hennen said he would rather see public investment in conservation, energy efficiency and sustainable energy sources. Solar power, for example, could become a lot more cost-effective as technology improves and other energy prices rise.
One example: The state could provide tax credits or other funding for solar-powered home water heaters. They could cut demand on the power grid and pay for themselves in a few years.
“We cannot afford to look to the coal industry to be our salvation,” Hennen said.
He and Jason Bentley, a lawyer in Frankfort with the firm McBrayer, McGinnis, Leslie and Kirkland who works with big energy companies, argued about what they both said was “fear-mongering” for and against coal.
“The reality is that these other fuels cannot compete with coal in price and flexibility,” Bentley said. And they won’t anytime soon.
Everyone agreed that coal will be Kentucky’s dominant energy source for decades to come. But they also agreed that big changes are coming - and the clock is ticking.
