Page 28 - Port of Baltimore Magazine November/December 2016

PORT PERSON
Coal In, Coal Out
IN CHALLENGING TIMES, MANGIN KEEPS THE COAL MOVING AT CONSOL MARINE TERMINAL
BY MERRILL WITTY | Photograph by Kathy Bergren Smith
The CONSOL Energy Baltimore Marine Terminal, served by the Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation rail lines, takes coal from northern Appalachian mines and sends it out to the rest of the world aboard barges
and vessels. CONSOL was originally a consolidation
of several western Maryland coal operators, beginning operations near the end of the Civil War. It has been expanding and innovating for the past 152 years and is one of the leading diversified energy companies in the U.S.
Patrick Mangin is the terminal’s director.
As such, he leads and provides guidance on all business matters led by the terminal managers for safety, environment, security, business development, supply chain management, human resources, operations, maintenance and logistics.
Mangin is proud that the company names safety as its number one core value. The terminal has gone over two and a half years without an injury and five years since its last lost-time accident.
Demands for CONSOL’s products are growing worldwide, but,
as Mangin points out, “The fossil fuel climate challenges (coal, natural gas, oil) are well known. The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 and the America Competes Act of 2011 outline our energy policy and security vital to our future and taking advantage of the energy resources available to us.”
The U.S. requires 4.2 terawatt hours of electricity per year (about the energy equivalent of every American riding a bike 24 hours a day at 20 mph all year), of which 33 percent goes to residential needs and 66 percent to commercial and industrial. There is still a long way to go for renewables to replace the energy of coal, natural gas and nuclear.
Coal and natural gas are now about equal in their share of covering those needs, Mangin says. The other predominant use for coal is for making coke, used to manufacture iron, steel brick and cement. “About 50 percent of our exports from mines in northern Appalachia are for those industries,” he says. Of the 8 billion tons of coal produced globally, about 25 percent is used for steel and cement.
Mangin cites the “fantastic” relation- ship with all of the terminal’s partners at the Port of Baltimore, especially the MPA.
[26] The Port of Baltimore ■ November/December 2016