Consilience Productions

« Ebay eBay's Latest Green Deal: 'Instant Sale' Electronics Trade-In | Main | The glaciers are melting and the seas are rising. »

Is "Clean Coal" an Oxymoron?
November 6, 2010 4:01 PM

There's a new documentary out that attempts to dispel the myth that we can somehow mine coal in a clean, environmentally sound fashion: Dirty Business: 'Clean Coal' and the Battle for Our Energy Future. From EMagazine.com:

It's not enough to tell people that "clean coal" is an oxymoron -- it's something that needs to be shown. Few of us have traveled to coal mines, seen mountains being blown up or enormous trucks hauling tons of coal across ravaged, blackened land. We may have viewed coal-fired power plants from afar, but likely not up close, where the heavy sooty smoke pouring upwards in constant streams -- as depicted here -- would give us pause the next time we flip on a light switch. There are many reasons to resist a coal-powered electricity future: it puts the U.S. at the mercy of unstable nations; it presents a terrible danger to miners (as evidenced so poignantly in Chile); and it is a leading cause of global warming, hastening the planet's demise. But our coal dependency, as Dirty Business explains, is also preventing us from moving forward energy-wise. And the argument that we can make coal "clean" is a well-funded PR strategy to keep coal in the picture, instead of pushing forward technological advances in renewable energies like wind and solar, and designing the smart grid infrastructure to support them.

Is it really possible to sequester the carbon emitted from these massive power plants run on coal? And if so, does it matter if it still entails ruining thousands of mountain tops in the process?

Read this Wiki page for more info, and then read this comprehensive page from TheDailyGreen.com, where they have this to say:

A significant bloc of observers, including many environmental activists, believe that getting the carbon dioxide out of coal doesn't do enough to address the problems with that plentiful fossil fuel. There remain issues such as mountaintop removal, for instance, in which mountain peaks are literally blasted off to get to the coal beneath, with the detritus dumped in valleys and streams of states like West Virginia. And the notion that coal can be truly "clean" was dealt a major blow just before Christmas when 5.4 million cubic yards of watery, toxic coal ash from a coal-burning power plant burst through a retaining wall, flooding a residential area near the Kingston Fossil Plant in the Tennessee Valley. The ash, contaminated with heavy metals and other toxic substances, forced residents to evacuate, destroyed several homes and left contamination that will take months to clean up.

For these critics, coal will never be "clean," and pursuing that illusion will only take time, attention and dollars away from development of renewable sources of energy that are inherently "cleaner." The several environmental groups that cooperated with industry in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership were cast as traitors to the green movement by many of their ardent colleagues.

They have a point, too. And we take no position on the merits of CCS technology and the other issues involved in getting coal to burn without creating a carbon dioxide problem; as we noted earlier, we can only say that it's possible to do, though the cost will be high. But it's worth noting that, given coal's domestic abundance, the influence of huge corporations that are invested in the stuff, and the importance of coal-producing states -- think Pennsylvania and Ohio, for starters -- in the political process, it's likely to be around as an energy source for a long time.

Indeed, it's complicated. But by all means, check out the documentary, read all you can, then decide: Is Clean Coal a Myth?


Join the discussion: Comments (0) | Email Link to a Friend
Permalink to post: http://www.cslproductions.org/earth/talk/archives/001093.shtml
Receive an email whenever this EARTH blog is updated:   Subscribe Here!
Tags: , ,

Share | | Subscribe



Add your comment

Name (required)
Email
Website
Remember personal info? Yes   No
Comments

home | music | democracy | earth | money | projects | about | contact

Site design by Matthew Fries | © 2003-23 Consilience Productions. All Rights Reserved.
Consilience Productions, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
All contributions are fully tax deductible.

Support the "dialogue BEYOND music!"

Because broad and informed public participation is the bedrock of a free, democratic, and civil society, your generous donation will help increase participation in the process of social change. 100% tax deductible.
Thank you!


SEARCH OUR SITE:

Co-op America Seal of Approval  Global Voices - The world is talking, are you listening?