Preface ........................................................ ix
Acknowledgments .............................................. xiii
Introduction .................................................. xiv
PART 1 COAL .................................................... 1
1 A Brief History of Coal ...................................... 3
The Early History of Coal .................................... 3
The Coal Industry in the United States ...................... 10
Life and Death in Early Coal Mines .......................... 12
2 Geochemistry and Geology .................................... 18
The Chemistry of Coal ....................................... 18
A Coal Economy .............................................. 22
The Geology of Coal ......................................... 25
3 Meeting the Demand for Coal ................................. 28
The Scale of Demand ......................................... 29
Environmental and Social Costs of Mining .................... 35
An Interview with Charlene Marshall on the Human Costs of
Coal ........................................................ 40
4 The Combustion Reaction ..................................... 48
Products and Reactants ...................................... 48
Global Warming and Carbon Sequestration ..................... 53
The Role of the Oceans ...................................... 56
5 Electricity Production and Its Consequences ................. 60
New Power-Production Technologies ........................... 61
More on CO2 Sequestration ................................... 67
Emissions Controls .......................................... 68
6 Alternative Uses for Coal ................................... 73
Methane from Coal ........................................... 73
Coal as a Transportation Fuel ............................... 76
A Source for Hydrogen Gas ................................... 78
Engineering the Climate ..................................... 79
7 Price versus Cost and National Coal Policies ................ 83
Pricing Coal ................................................ 84
National Energy Policies .................................... 88
Carbon Trading Markets ...................................... 90
PART 2 OIL .................................................... 97
8 A Brief History of Oil ...................................... 99
The Oil Business Prior to 1950 ............................. 100
Standard Oil ............................................... 104
The Oil Business after 1950 ................................ 107
9 The Geology and Chemistry of Oil ........................... 115
Oil and Geology ............................................ 116
The Chemistry of Oil ....................................... 119
When Will the World Run Out of Oil? ........................ 120
10 Meeting the Demand for Oil ................................. 126
Obtaining Oil .............................................. 127
The Oil Sands of Alberta ................................... 130
Transporting Oil ........................................... 132
11 Creating and Consuming Petroleum Products .................. 136
Refineries ................................................. 137
The Chemistry of Combustion ................................ 140
The Refinery Business ...................................... 142
12 Patterns of Consumption .................................... 147
The Transportation Sector .................................. 148
Alternatives to Gasoline ................................... 154
Other Uses of Oil .......................................... 156
13 Environmental Costs of the Oil Economy ..................... 158
Local Effects .............................................. 159
Global Effects ............................................. 165
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ........................ 166
14 Oil Markets and Government Policies ........................ 170
Pricing Petroleum .......................................... 171
Collusion or Free Market? .................................. 181
National Policies .......................................... 183
Chronology .................................................... 188
List of Acronyms .............................................. 191
Glossary ...................................................... 192
Further Resources ............................................. 195
Index ......................................................... 200
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