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5 Transport of Coal and Coal Products
Pages 80-90

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From page 80...
... coal use (Table 5.1) , coal transport to the more than 600 coal-burning power plant sites in the nation is especially important.
From page 81...
... coal shipments to their final domestic destinations and 72 percent of coal delivered to power plants (EIA, 2006g; see Table 5.1)
From page 82...
... 5-1 Although continuing technology improvements may help railroads to add capacity and provide reliable delivery at a reasonable cost, it is unlikely that federally sponsored research and development will be significant contributors to such improvements -- capacity, reliability, and price are all much more dependent on supply and demand, business practices, the investment climate, and regulatory oversight in the railroad industry. In addition, although the industry faces staffing constraints, worker health and safety concerns, environmental regulation, and community concerns, these issues do not threaten capacity, reliability, or price to an extent that would materially affect projections of future coal use.
From page 83...
... . Opinions differ about whether or not disruptions in coal delivery reflect a substantial and ongoing problem and about whether the power plant operators or the railroads should modify their activities to respond to these delivery problems (English, 2006; Hamberger, 2006; McLennan, 2006; Mohl, 2006; Wilkes, 2006)
From page 84...
... Severe and frequent delivery problems or spikes in prices have the potential to reduce future coal use by affecting the climate for coal-fired power plant investments. TRANSPORTATION By TRuCk More than 12 percent of the total coal transported in 2004 in the United States -- about 129 million tons -- was moved by truck (EIA, 2006g)
From page 85...
... These exports have decreased in recent years, but lake traffic has remained approximately constant because of increased movement of powder River Basin (pRB) coal shipped between U.S.
From page 86...
... ELECTRICITy TRANSMISSION Constraints on the delivery of electricity from power plants can reduce the natural competitive advantage that coal-fired power plants have over plants fueled by oil or natural gas that cannot generate electricity as cheaply. Consequently, transmission constraints have the potential to limit future coal use.
From page 87...
... . planning for reliable electricity in the areas of greatest demand depends on a combination of local power plants to meet local demand without undue stress on the transmission system; distributed resources such as small on-site generators, energy efficiency and other demand reduction; and new or upgraded transmission infrastructure (NYC, 2004)
From page 88...
... If geological sequestration of CO2 is implemented on a large scale as a greenhouse gas mitigation measure in the future, it will be necessary to transport large quantities of CO2 from their sources to geological storage sites. Ideally, CO2 sequestration would take place at sites in close proximity to the sources of CO2, generally coal-based power plants or other large industrial facilities that capture and compress CO2 for transport and storage.
From page 89...
... projections of higher coal use depend on sufficient capacity to transmit electricity from coal-based power plants to such areas reliably and at a reasonable cost. Conversely, the projected increases in coal use will
From page 90...
... 0 CoAL RESEARCh ANd dEvELoPmENt diminish if those high-demand areas satisfy much of their growing demand for electricity not by expanding their ability to import electricity from areas where coal is plentiful, but by a combination of energy efficiency, demand response, and local electric generation from sources other than coal. Both the rail transportation and the electric transmission systems are complex networks in which localized disruptions can have severe and widespread impacts.


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