Mar 31 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Spencer Hunt The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio

Dogged by pollution and growing concerns about global warming, power and mining companies have mounted a $40 million nationwide ad campaign aimed at cleaning up coal's dirty image.

Television, newspaper and billboard ads champion coal as the "clean" fuel of the future. They say it helps power companies provide cheap electricity while using new technologies that produce "less pollution than ever."

Still, coal-fired power plants release millions of tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. Complaints about global warming and rising construction costs have derailed plans to build more than 16 power plants nationwide.

"We can't meet our future energy needs without coal," said Joe Lucas, director of Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, an advocacy group based in Alexandria, Va., which is paying for ads.

"It's a matter of how we use it. We will use it cleanly."

Environmentalists don't agree. Many say companies should invest in alternative energies, such as solar and wind power, and wean themselves from coal.

"They are trying to mislead the public," said Bruce Nilles, who directs the Sierra Club's national anti-coal campaign. "They run around saying 'clean,' like they have created some new version of coal."

They might have to. Legislators are considering bills that would regulate carbon dioxide for the first time and force power companies to reduce emissions.

"Our feeling is the next president and the next Congress is certainly going to deal with this policy issue," Lucas said.

Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, which is funded by Columbus-based American Electric Power and 22 other power and coal companies, spent about $750,000 this month on Ohio television, radio, newspaper and billboard ads.

"It puts us with a lot of like-minded companies that understand that it's important for coal to remain a part of the nation's diverse energy mix," said Pat Hemlepp, an AEP spokesman.

Nearly 90 percent of the electricity used in Ohio comes from coal.

Ohio coal mines produced an estimated 22.7 million tons of coal in 2006 and employed about 1,800 miners, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources said.

U.S. Department of Energy records show power-plant pollution linked to smog, acid rain and soot is on the decline in Ohio, thanks to the addition of pollution-catching filters and scrubbers.

There was a 34 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide pollution and a 59 percent reduction in nitrous oxides at the state's 23 coal-burning power plants from 1996 to 2006.

However, Ohio power plants released 123.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2006. None of more than 100 plants that companies want to build across the country would include measures to capture the gas, Nilles said.

Lucas said carbon dioxide filters could be added to new and old plants after they are built. And he said that companies are working on methods to turn coal into a gas before it's burned, making it easier for filters to reduce pollution.

Others are studying how to bury carbon dioxide deep in the ground.

In Ohio, Gov. Ted Strickland is pushing for legislation that would require alternative-energy sources, including wind.

Sandy Buchanan, director of Ohio Citizen Action, said that, despite Clean Air Act regulations, many older power plants were allowed to operate for years without expensive scrubbers and filters.

"I would be shocked if this industry doesn't have a strategy of opposing (global warming) changes and getting as much as they possibly can either grandfathered or exempted," Buchanan said.

shunt@dispatch.com