Economic impacts of surface mine reclamation

Journal Article · Sun Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1976 · Land Econ.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2307/3145526· OSTI ID:7308352

Schlottmann, A ^[1]; Spore, R L

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1. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville

The primary purpose of this paper is to analyze the regional economic impact of back-to-contour surface mining regulations on the dominant coal market (the use of ''steam-electric'' coal by electric utilities) and its coal suppliers. Analysis is accomplished by means of a nonlinear regional programming model of the steam-electric coal market developed to provide quantitative information concerning alternative energy-environmental policy combinations. The effects of alternative policies such as reclamation standards cannot be reduced to a single dimension. There is an impact on total production, but given an emphasis, particularly in recent years, on the importance of Federal policy as a source of differential regional effects, the diverse regional output effects are also important. Each consuming and producing region will be affected not only by public policy towards coal in its own area but also by policies applied to mining elsewhere. Thus, regional interaction is explicitly considered. As public policy alters the private cost of mining and use, there will be regional effects on the delivered price of energy derived from coal. A second purpose of this analysis is to consider the effects of the surface mining regulations on the regional competitive position of underground mining. As L. Hines has written, ''the use of strip mining and auger mining in the coal fields has reduced mining costs well below those of underground operations--if the wide-spread degradation and property loss in areas where these practices are employed is disregarded.'' The explicit purpose of some sponsors of ''original contour'' legislation is to stimulate underground production.

• OSTI ID: 7308352
• Journal Information: Land Econ.; (United States), Journal Name: Land Econ.; (United States) Vol. 52:3; ISSN LAECA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
012000 -- Coal
Lignite
& Peat-- Mining
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290200 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Economics & Sociology
290300 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Environment
Health
& Safety
294001* -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Coal
COAL MINING
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
COST
ECONOMIC IMPACT
ECONOMICS
ENERGY MODELS
ENERGY POLICY
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
LAND RECLAMATION
LEGISLATION
MINING
PRODUCTION
REGIONAL ANALYSIS
REGULATIONS
SURFACE MINING
UNDERGROUND MINING