Coal region county mulls unthinkable: switch to gas

So it was with no small dose of irony that Schuylkill County leaders recently offered a proposal that would have seemed unthinkable when coal was still king: converting the county courthouse and prison from homegrown anthracite to -gasp -natural gas heat.

The county commissioners say they're trying to save money, a familiar refrain of local governments looking to trim costs amid the nation's economic downturn.

But their idea went over like an anthracite balloon with coal executives and coal-region lawmakers, who say the county is sending the wrong message about coal's future -and disrespecting its past.

Brian Rich, a member of Schuylkill County's most prominent coal family, called the proposal "insulting" and "the saddest idea ever to originate from Schuylkill County government" in a recent letter to the editor of the Republican and Herald in Pottsville.

"It's emotional for me," Rich, whose family has been in mining for a century, told The Associated Press. "I have a terrific pride in this industry and the people in it."

He continued: "My first reaction was, there has to be a mistake."

Though the industry is a shadow of its former self, Schuylkill County remains the nation's No. 1 producer of anthracite, a hard coal found primarily in eastern Pennsylvania. Legend has it that coal was discovered in the Appalachian hills more than 200 years ago by a hunter whose campfire accidentally ignited an outcropping of anthracite.

It is used in metal refining, electricity generation and, yes, even to this day, in some home heating. In this county, 2006 census estimates showed about 10 percent of households still heating with coal.

Rich's company, Reading Anthracite, exports coal to Brazil, Belgium and Canada, while a company run by his brother won a $100 million federal grant to build the nation's first plant converting waste coal to low-emissions diesel.