Nov 3 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Kim McGuire St. Louis Post-Dispatch


To meet immediate energy goals, the nation must improve energy efficiency by 15 percent and test large-scale efforts to capture and store carbon dioxide, according to a new National Research Council report.

That report, "America's Energy Future: Challenges and Opportunities," was the topic of a daylong symposium Monday hosted by the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability at Washington University.

Washington University Chancellor Mark Wrighton served as vice chair of the committee that wrote the report, which he said is circulating among key national policymakers.

"I believe the issue of assessing energy and environment represents the most important challenge of the century," Wrighton told symposium participants.

He said the report will influence upcoming key energy decisions as it contains a hard look at the nation's supply and demand needs.

Among some of the key findings:

-- The nation's power grid could be completely modernized and expanded in 20 years.

-- The nation will continue to depend on oil as a major transportation fuel through 2035.

-- More money must be invested in research and development.

"The good news is that we have a very large number of options in supplying our energy needs," Wrighton said.

Among those supply options should be nuclear and coal, the report concludes.

Representatives from Arch and Peabody coal companies spoke at the symposium, touting the benefits of "clean" and even "green" coal technologies that could lead toward a zero-emissions scenario.

Despite suggestions to the contrary, coal is here to stay for now, they argued.

"If you read popular media, you'd think every coal plant in the U.S. is turned off and we weren't building any new ones," said Steven Leer, president and chief executive officer of Arch Coal Inc.

A group of Washington University students protested outside the symposium, challenging the contention that coal should be part of future energy plans. They also asserted that the university is already "too cozy" with the coal industry, pointing to recent appointments of Arch executives to the board of trustees.

"'America's Energy Future' doesn't represent my idea of a clean, renewable future for our country," said Washington U. student Avanti Puri. "We need to move away from fossil fuels immediately" in order to remedy the effects of climate change.

For generating electricity, the National Research committee recommends the construction of five nuclear power demonstration plants in the next decade.

Similarly, it suggests the construction of 15 to 20 retrofitted or new coal or natural gas plants with carbon capture storage before 2020 to demonstrate the technology is practical and cost-effective.

Coal-fired power plants currently generate about half of the electricity in the U.S. and domestic coal reserves are sufficient for the continued use of coal for more than a century, according the report.

That's why FutureGen, a demonstration project for carbon dioxide capture and storage in Illinois, must move forward, Wrighton said.

"Adverse consequences of global warming are difficult to assess quantitatively, but the risk is so great that we must succeed in meeting this challenge," he said

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