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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Mine Accidents, Oil Slicks Related To Declining Supplies?

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Monday, June 7, 2010   

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - So far this year, the U.S. has seen the worst oil spill in its history and the worst coal mine accident in four decades. Some experts say one big problem is that, after more than a century of mining and drilling, the easy-to-get reserves are gone.

Evan Hanson, president of Downstream Strategies in Morgantown, helped write a recent report on the remaining central Appalachian coal, and points to the problem.

"The easiest to access, most productive coal reserves are slowly but surely being mined out. That means that it's becoming more difficult and more expensive to mine coal here."

According to Hanson, once the easy reserves have been used up, the industries face increasing challenges.

"The coal seams we're mining now are thinner than they were decades ago, and further underground. So, those coal seams would be more difficult to get at, they'd be more expensive."

John Curtis is a professor of geology at the Colorado School of Mines and an expert on natural gas supplies. He says all the easy onshore oil reserves in the U.S. have been drilled, which means we have to drill into deeper, more challenging layers of rock.

"Any time we go to environments that are deeper, it often involves higher temperatures and certainly involves higher pressures. So, it is a continuing technological challenge."

Curtis says in response, the oil industry is becoming more technologically sophisticated, and is drilling off-shore more often.

The state's coal industry insists there are plenty of reserves. The U.S. Senate is currently debating a bill designed in part to move the county away from fossil fuels. A version of the bill has already passed the House.



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