Clean Coal (sic) Nowhere in Sight

Just days after President Bush promised to “fund new technologies that can generate coal power while capturing carbon emissions” his Department of Energy (DOE) has shut down America’s first major clean-coal project [ark | more2\ark2 | search]. The experimental FutureGen project in rural Illinois was to demonstrate carbon capture and storage [search]. Just a month after it started, the DOE has pulled out of the public/private partnership. The cancellation ensures dirty coal remains the rule [ark], and that any working and fully implemented carbon storage solution will come too late to address climate change.

Clearly the Bush administration and coal industry have been stringing us along with the myth of clean coal. The coal industry’s propaganda leads us to believe that no mountains are razed to produce coal, and that its burning is safe, non-toxic and most certainly does not contain global warming causing carbon dioxide. This million dollar ad blitz fails to mention that carbon capture and burial does not exist, has not been tested, and development is proving expensive. Clean coal remains a pernicious myth.  

Bookmark: