Eric, check out the Charlie Rose interview with Brian Schweitzer where he goes over energy. Jump to 9 minutes in:
See, this is part of why I wanted this guy as Obama's VP. That, and because I wanted to see GOP heads explode when they found out Obama's VP choice knows Arabic.
I mean, obviously I'm going to disagree with a lot of what he's saying here.
First of all, absolutely the onus is on the power companies, mining companies, and those that represent them and advocate for them to prove beyond reasonable doubt that "clean coal" plants are feasable. Do you have any idea the sheer magnitude of CO2 that would have to be sequestered every day to keep our energy clean? And CO2 doesn't want to stay put, stay underground. It wants to leak out, and if it does, the best case scenario would be global warming. CO2 venting in large amounts can suffocate an area, its happened before.
And he wants to turn coal into fuel. Fischer-Tropsch, CTL, etc. If only he would be honest about the sheer amound of waste generated to turn coal to liquid fuel. The gross amount of water needed for the process. Then, when we have the fuel for our cars, there's still carbon being emitted into the atmosphere at that burn point.
These "solutions" are vying for the same "energy progress dollar" that wind power, conservation, and energy grid overhall is looking for, and it is really sad. One is progress, one is stagnation.
Alternative_Fuels_Fact_Sheet_2.pdf
Clean_Coal_Fact_Sheet_1.pdf
Clean_Coal_Fact_Sheet_2.pdf