The Dirt on Clean Coal
Critics argue that "clean coal" means anything the industry wants it to, pointing out that of the country's 616 coal plants, none are carbon-free or close to it. The viability of an environmentally sustainable future for coal is questionable, and so is the industry's commitment to cleaning itself up. The Center for American Progress recently released a report showing that the country's biggest coal companies have spent only a fraction of their ... Full Story »
Posted by Kaizar Campwala
There are ways to "extract" the energy in coal without burning it - however they are very advanced technologically. Well, actually, the Russians have been using the technology since the 1970s but when Ronald Raygun entered office the USA /USSR co-operative programme was terminated for two basic reasons: The technology would only use 1/4th the amount of mined coal to produce the same amount of energy and oil was so inexpensive that we really (except for President Carter and the DOE) didn't think that alternative energy was that important. Carter had photovoltaic panels installed on the roof of the White House - completely unobtrusive - to supply part of the energy for the facility but RayGun had them removed. Funny that. Gore is as much an expert on coal as he is on his inventive capacity of developing the internet - as he said in the article. " It does not exist". I guess the next thing we will need to do is regulate volcanic pyroclastic flows because of the toxicity of the fumes and the materials. There are ways to use carbonaceous materials in all of the forms - gas, liquid, solid (such as coal) but the problem continues to be the NOX, SOX, CO and CO2. We have a few hundred years left of coal use at our current rate. The problem for future generations is will they be able to tread water that long. Alternative energy technologies need to be placed on the front burner. Solar energy projects, such as , wind (figure it out folks), solar thermal and the new technologies in photovoltaic photon conversion truly are the only real alternatives. I really could go on and on. This is my field of work and I really do not support accusation pieces without suggested alternative solutions. Cheers