Pub. 4 2014 Issue 1

11 MINING FOCUS D r. Frank Clemente, Professor Emeritus at PennsylvaniaState University, recently presented some interesting facts on the website Energy-Facts.org. According to Dr. Clemente: • The U.S. population in 2050 will have grown by more than 120 million people, and the work force will have grown 25 percent. • The GDP was $13 trillion in 2010. In 40 years, that number will be $27 trillion. • All those peoplewill need homes inwhich to live and cars to drive. Contractors will build 70million new homes for them, and dealershipswill sell them680million cars. • By the time this boomhits, ninety percent of the people in the U.S. will live in cities. The increase in urbanization will be the continuation of a trend that has been at work for a while now. As it is, most people already live in urban areas of the country. In fact, according to the World Resources Institute, only one-fourth of the nation lives in what can be defined as the country. The remaining population lives in suburbs or in the middle of cities. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the most densely populated areas of the country are clustered along two interstate highways, I-95 on the east coast and I-5 on the west coast. Third largest is I-10, which connects Jacksonville, Florida, to Los Angeles, California. Again according to the U.S. Census Bureau: • The largest urbanized area in the U.S. is the New York–Newark area, with population in three separate states (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut). • The second largest area is thewest coast: the Los Angeles–LongBeach–Anaheim, California region. • Number three isChicago, with population spanning the boundaries of two states (Illinois and Indiana). Rounding out the top ten, in order, are the following: • Miami • Philadelphia • Dallas • Houston • Washington, D.C. • Atlanta • Boston Despite the forecast, some trends do need to change between now and then. For example, urban poverty. Social isolation in poor urban areas, high rates of unemployment, jobs that have moved either from the city center to the suburbs or to other countries, and an increased emphasis on an international economy have all meant the most likely increase in jobs are for those that don’t pay much, don’t havemuch in theway of benefits, and that certainly don’t help people to improve their situation. What helps people improve their situation? One can argue that two specific areas for improvement would certainly help: better access to education and more mobility. What do both of these improvements require? In a word: energy. Computers, laptops, tablets, phones, and many other devices all run on electricity. But that leads to the next question. How do you generate enough electricity for your needs? Dr. Clemente argues that since the U.S. has 27 percent of all the coal deposits in the world, coal is the only energy resource we have that will be capable of meeting tomorrow’s increasing energy demands. That isn’t surprising. Coal already is meeting energy demands today. But to meet future needs successfully will require continued improvements in technology. Newcoal technologieswill become critical, with supercritical power plants being a logical direction to move. Coal and the Urban U.S.