| he human impairments, adverse environmental effects, and loss of natural resources occasioned by the production of some 50 billion tons of coal in the United States during the past 2 centuries were identified, their gravity assessed, their social cost estimated, and the growth of governmental regulations chronicled.;As regulation was only one of a number of factors influencing the coal industry's social performance and, as such industrial factors as production level, mining method, mine location, size and ownership, mechanization, and labor productivity varied, the share of the improvement assignable to governmental regulations could not be determined.;Policy options to further increase the social efficiency of the industry include: (1) encourage the production of coal from large surface mines and close (or consolidate) small underground and small surface mines to improve industrywide safety performance; (2) foster the use of longwall mining methods and extend federal regulations which maximize coal recovery of publicly-owned coals to privately-owned coals to decrease coal losses; and (3) increase industry's payments to the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund to provide the funds needed to repair past environmental damages.;Using the level of externalities as an indicator, it was found that the coal industry now produces few adverse externalities and hence has become more socially efficient. But a legacy of human impairments, environmental damage and lost natural resources has been imposed on society by past coal production. The recent increase in fees that industry pays into the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund should guarantee benefits for any new black lung victims; but the... |
