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No such thing as clean coal

Clean Coal? There’s No Such Thing  – North Star

Eric

Baerren

December 29, 2008 “……………………………The term “clean coal” is cleverly designed. It’s supposed to seduce people into thinking that coal – the dirtiest source of energy we have – can be scrubbed and made as clean and fresh as a sunny spring afternoon……………………..

The last few months, coal and energy producers have attempted to put lipstick on the coal pig. They’ve pitched new and innovative ways to clean up coal’s image, almost all of which have involved finding ways to address the problems of coal’s waste released into the air.

 

Just as you can’t put lipstick on a pig, there is no clean way to burn coal. None of the ways proposed to address coal’s emissions have been made to work anywhere on the kind of large scale necessary to meet the nation’s energy needs, and none of them begin to approach the issue of what to do about the solid waste.

Solid waste helped give nuclear energy a bad name in the United States (although cost overruns, constant design changes and the uncertainty of return on investment killed the industry), and environmentalists rightly say that going nuclear means finding some long-term solution to the waste. The same ought to apply to coal plants,……………..

The Obama Administration could simply answer the question by not allowing any more traditional coal-fired plants to be built. The authority to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant was handed to the Bush Administration by the U.S. Supreme Court, and the Obama Administration could overturn some of the enforcement rules that have prevented the enactment of a climate change policy. It could be that President Obama’s approach to coal emissions is to let America’s coal-fired power plant fleet die of old age.

 

North Star Writers Group – Syndicated Commentary: Opinion, Humor and Features

December 29, 2008 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized