BLUEFIELD — In an e-mail report sent to the Bluefield Daily Telegraph late last week, the Hastings Group reported that a record 95 climate change resolutions have been filed during the 2010 proxy season calling for stronger corporate attention to climate change.

The Hastings Group report was datelined Boston on March 4, and indicated that companies targeted this proxy season include “some of the nation’s largest coal companies, electric power and oil producers, home builders, big-box retailers,” etc.

The coal industry and people who earn a living from it have lived in the shadow of public scrutiny for more than 125 years. In the first decade of the 20th century, the mounting death toll from mine explosions and unsafe working conditions prompted the federal government to act and establish mine safety laws. The West Virginia coal mine wars of the 1920s and early 1930s led to a strong United Mine Workers of America union. And the public outcry over abandoned surface mine lands in the 1970s led to the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977.

Although coal has experienced some good and bad years, the public’s passion for safe working conditions for coal miners has never vanished, and the same kind of zeal that strip mine protesters of the 1970s displayed seems to be in force in 2010. Now, even though Congress hasn’t followed through on the promise of bringing the hammer down on fossil fuel extraction or consuming industries, many feel the Obama administration is marching in that direction, prompting the question: What would the world be like without coal?

“I could see a reason for all the pressure if there was an alternative right now, but there isn’t one,” Rick Taylor, president of the Pocahontas Coal Association, said. “I continue to stand by the same thought that we don’t have an alternative.

“We have essentially maxed out on nuclear energy production, and I can’t see how wind, solar or hydro power can be increased enough to take the place of the nation’s present energy consumption. Coal provides more than 50 percent of our domestic energy needs, and the demand for energy is continuing to grow.

“So far, everything I’ve seen will put a greater cost on energy on working people. A couple of years ago when the price of fuel — gasoline — went up to $4 per gallon, it didn’t really have an impact on my mother. She still bought gasoline and didn’t change where she went. But I’ll tell you, this increase of $125 in her monthly electric bill will have an impact. She’ll have to start making choices.”

Taylor has often said that, as a rule, coal miners have a great love for the land where they live and work, and that that he is in favor of developing other energy sources.

“There may be an alternative in the years to come, but why make it hard on working people while alternative energy sources are under development?

“I don’t know about you, but almost everyone who comes up to me lately has said something to the effect: ‘Where’s that global warming now? Where’s that climate change?’ I think it’s wrong to think that man has that great of an impact on the climate If we do, we would have probably done something about it this year. I think it’s a cycle of nature.”

A lot has changed during the century of industrialization Americans have experienced. In the 1800s, the United States was primarily agrarian and people had a direct relationship with the land. However, the industrial revolution of the late 19th and early 20th centuries changed the lives of most Americans. Cities grew, the population grew and the number of families living off the land declined. In order to live in a harsh winter environment, most people heated their homes with coal or a combination of wood and coal.

By the middle of the 20th century, cities in America’s highly industrial Northeast were shrouded in a cloud of thick, yellow sulfur smoke in winter that was equal to or greater than the smog on West Coast cities that was fueled by too many unrestricted, gasoline-fueled automobiles. Industrialized cities cleaned up their air even before the Clean Air Act of 1990 gave the Environmental Protection Agency power to address air-quality standards. Smoke from the home fires cleared, and coal-fired electric utilities made great strides in clearing the air.

“My thought on coal is that we have taken electricity reliability in this country for granted and the main reason we enjoy that reliability is the base load from coal plants,” Daniel D. Smith, senior vice president/coal marketing for Norfolk Southern Corp., said. “Also, the economic development spurred by reliable and cost effective coal plants is overlooked as well.”

In a world where energy has great value, U.S. coal reserves remain abundant, according to Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association.

“Rather than think of life without coal, you should try to think about life without reasonably priced, efficient electricity,” he said. “There are many people living in Third World countries who would love to have access to even a small portion of the electricity that we take for granted as though it is an entitlement.

“But our economy isn’t robust. It’s fragile. People are suffering with high unemployment, and the things our federal government is doing is just adding additional costs to the energy we have. It simply makes no sense to do that to people who are struggling.

“Go back to the situation with these surface mining permits the EPA is holding up. They say we can’t have a permit, but they will not tell us what is wrong that we can try to fix. All we want to do is work. We want to be the power center for the nation ... a center that helps the country remain energy independent and gives us time to develop new energy sources in the future.

“There doesn’t seem to be any sensibility to it. Without coal, what do you think would happen to West Virginia, western Virginia, eastern Kentucky and parts of Ohio? When you think about all of these countries without electricity, their standard of living isn’t very high, their life expectancy isn’t very good and their overall health isn’t as good as it can be. People in those countries who don’t have electricity need to figure out how they’re going to eat and how they’re going to sleep on that day. It’s something to think about.”

— Bill Archer is a member of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph editorial staff. E-mail: barcher@bdtonline.com