If you go to foxnews.com today, you'll see this ad from the Clean Coal people, which says:
THE DEBATE IS TONIGHT, AND OBAMA AND MCCAIN AGREE
THERE'S NOTHING LEFT TO DEBATE
AMERICAN COAL IS ABUNDANT, AFFORDABLE AND INCREASINGLY CLEAN
CLEAN COAL MEANS OUR NEXT PRESIDENT WON'T HAVE TO CHOOSE BETWEEN THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE ECONOMY
Uh huh. I like how even they admit it's only 'increasingly clean'.
Oh my word....that's ridiculous. Increasingly clean when compared to what?? Sure. Maybe it's cleaner than coal mined 100 years ago. But compared to fuel sources that are actually renewable? Yeah, not so much.
That is some greenwashing if ever I saw it.
Yeah very lame. Coal power is cleaner than it used to be, but it's still nasty. Obama has supported clean coal, but only if the carbon is sequestered (which is essentially what makes it 'clean'), and carbon sequestration technology is about a decade from widespread use. So in the short-term, Obama does not support coal power. But when discussing the issue with states containing big coal reserves, he tends to gloss over that point.
A very good article on ClimateProgress today regarding carbon capture and storage. The bottom line being that it's progressing very slowly because it's an expensive process.
"The modeling work done for the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) on how to comply with the AB32 law (California’s Global Warming Solutions Act), online here, puts the cost of coal gasification with carbon capture and storage at a staggering 16.9 cents per kWh."
That's more expensive than wind, nuclear, and solar thermal power, to name a few.
The article also notes that to make the technology viable, we need to put a big price on carbon emissions. Triple the cost that the EU has established already. So it's not looking like a very viable technology at the moment. Mostly just a way for politicians to say they still support coal.
