There is no such thing as clean coal<\/p>\n
President Obama is the country’s biggest champion of the myth of “clean coal”.\u00a0\u00a0 Carbon capture and storage is not yet operational and it’s unsure if it will ever be.\u00a0 Unfortunately, sinking all this money into CCS to use for coal is a big waste.\u00a0 CCS is not going to solve the problems with coal, such as toxic waste and mercury leaking into our air and water. \u00a0 It’s probably necessary to have carbon capture and sequestration on hand in case climate change enters the runaway phase, but it should not be used on coal plants.\u00a0 Coal plants should be shut down and if CCS is used for anything it should be to remove CO2 from the air in case of an emergency.\u00a0 But the question remains:\u00a0 and put it where?<\/p>\n
The problem of where to “sequester” or store carbon emissions is still a huge issue. We cannot put it on the ocean bed or into rock formations unless we know for sure it will stay there, and no one yet knows whether it will.\u00a0 Yet on February 3rd President Obama issued a memorandum declaring our use of coal as necessary, as a job creator and as a cheap form of energy.\u00a0\u00a0 It’s none of the above.\u00a0 There’s also a catch:\u00a0 as soon as the CCS is implemented, due to its huge cost, the cost of using coal will skyrocket.\u00a0 That makes ‘clean coal’ not only a myth, but a very expensive one and the costs will be passed on to consumers.\u00a0 (Yet Republicans are for this . . . why?)<\/p>\n
The use of coal is\u00a0 environmentally devastating.\u00a0 Scientists at the journal Science recently recommended that mountaintop removal to get at coal should stop immediately.\u00a0 And carbon capture and storage won’t stop the pervasive emissions of mercury that get into our land and water, poisoning fish and the people who eat it.\u00a0 CCS would do nothing to prevent acid rain and mercury poisoning of our lakes and streams.\u00a0 From the White House, Feb. 3, 2010:\n <\/p>\n
“SUBJECT:\u00a0\u00a0A Comprehensive Federal Strategy on Carbon Capture and Storage<\/p>\n
For decades, the coal industry has supported quality high-paying jobs for American workers, and coal has provided an important domestic source of reliable, affordable energy.\u00a0 At the same time, coal-fired power plants are the largest contributor to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and coal accounts for 40 percent of global emissions.\u00a0 Charting a path toward clean coal is essential to achieving my Administration’s goals of providing clean energy, supporting American jobs, and reducing emissions of carbon pollution.\u00a0 Rapid commercial development and deployment of clean coal technologies, particularly carbon capture and storage (CCS), will help position the United States as a leader in the global clean energy race.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
My Administration is already pursuing a set of concrete initiatives to speed the commercial development of safe, affordable, and broadly deployable CCS technologies.\u00a0 We have made the largest Government investment in carbon capture and storage of any nation in [...]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is no such thing as clean coal President Obama is the country’s biggest champion of the myth of “clean coal”.\u00a0\u00a0 Carbon capture and storage is not yet operational and it’s unsure if it will ever be.\u00a0 Unfortunately, sinking all … Continue reading