Clean Coal is Not Clean or Green
Posted by Kelly Smith on Wed, May 12, 2010
“Clean coal” is a term used to describe technologies that will reduce carbon dioxide emissions while still using coal as a fuel. The most common technique described as a clean coal technology is carbon sequestration, which condenses carbon dioxide gas and stores it underground to keep it out of the atmosphere. Another clean coal technology involves converting coal into a gaseous form before burning it to produce a cleaner burn with fewer carbon emissions.
On the downside, clean coal technology will take years to be fully developed, and it is uncertain whether carbon storage will be successful in the long term. Currently, about half of the energy in the United States comes from coal power plants, but the shift to clean coal is expensive. Old coal power plants will not support the new technology, so brand new coal power plants need to be built. This uses energy and emits carbon dioxide starting from the construction stage. Clean coal technology also does not solve any of the problems associated with coal mining.
Mississippi recently brought proposals to build a new clean coal plant to a halt. Officials decided that the costs and risks were too high and the technologies were too uncertain to make the project feasible without a long list of conditions. Mississippi Power thinks that the conditions imposed by state regulators make the project impossible. Similar project proposals have been shut down all over the country in the last few years for many of the same reasons.
Investing a lot of money in an uncertain technology that continues to use a problematic fossil fuel doesn’t seem very smart, especially since coal is not a renewable resource and will not be a viable long-term energy source. Finding a marginally cleaner way to use fossil fuels does not eliminate all of the problems associated with the use of fossil fuels. From the mining to the burning, there is not very much that is clean about coal. It makes far more sense to invest money in new renewable energy projects. We have the technology to harness more green power, so our focus should be on making green energy a more abundant and cost-effective option to power our future and counteract climate change.