Roanoke Times: Clean Coal is an oxymoron http:

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Roanoke Times: Clean Coal is an oxymoron



Clean coal is an oxymoron. No kidding.

A great editorial this morning in Vermont's Roanoke Times on the idea of investing millions in clean coal technology and carbon capture and storage, when more affordable and proven renewable technologies are already further along in development and will be the answer to America's energy woes in the long term.

The editorial rightly concludes that:

Frankly, the technology seems like a stretch. Massive amounts -- hundreds of millions of tons -- of carbon dioxide would have to be diverted from emissions stacks, using technology only recently implemented commercially. Then it would have to be transported to sites where it could be efficiently, safely and permanently stored underground.

And it seems that the heads of at least two major coal-to-electricity companies would agree that CCS is somewhat of stretch.

Jim Rogers, CEO Duke Energy, recently stated that:

“CCS as a magical technology that solves the carbon problem for coal plants is oversold…I think there is a lot to learn, and it is going to take us a lot longer for us to figure it out than a lot of us think”.

David Ratcliffe, CEO Southern Company was quoted recently saying the following:

“We undersold how complex and how difficult [sequestration on a large scale] is”and "It is absolutely critical that we inform policy debate with the best reality about technological availability that we can…We can’t plug in CCS in five years. You can have legislation that says that all day long, but it isn’t going to be there.”

Although there is little hope of seeing commercial-scale CCS technology anytime soon, this has not stopped some organizations from selling the idea of "carbon capture-ready" coal plants. In other words, continue to build coal plants today that will someday, 30 or 40 years down the road (if ever), be able to capture all that heat-trapping greenhouse gas.

That's a pretty risky investment based on a lot of hope, especially when there are proven, economically viable renewable energy sources like wind and solar that produce no greenhouse gas. Its kind of like continuing to smoke "cancer free-ready" cigarettes in the hope that 30 or 40 years from now cigarettes will actually be cancer-free

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