Feb 7 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Debra McCown Bristol Herald Courier, Va.


In the past two years, the U.S. Department of Energy has announced $6.7 billion in funding initiatives for "clean coal" research projects in such places as Birmingham, Ala.; Bainbridge Island, Wash.; and Beulah, N.D.

A step beyond scrubbing power plant emissions of harmful chemicals, the clean coal projects are aimed at removing carbon dioxide -- a gas produced from the burning of fossil fuel and blamed in many scientific circles for global warming.

Once the carbon dioxide is removed from power plant emissions, the goal is to inject it into the ground for permanent storage.

While the Energy Department money has helped to pay for several projects around the country -- including the first large-scale demonstration of the technology at American Electric Power's Mountaineer Plant in New Haven, W.Va. -- dozens of others await funding.

 The efforts began in earnest following a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court decision that classified climate-warming "greenhouse gases," including carbon dioxide, as pollutants. Coal-fired utilities are now staking their future on a belief that coal can be made clean.

"We can't just get rid of coal," said John Shepelwich, spokesman for AEP subsidiary Appalachian Power. "This allows us to continue using it with fewer emissions and fewer impacts on the greenhouse gas situation."

Why the rush? That 2007 Supreme Court decision gives the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

And as the EPA takes steps toward regulating six greenhouse gases, Congress is debating a regulatory scheme that would supersede any imposed by the EPA. Commonly referred to as cap and trade, the regulations would set a maximum on emissions allowed and then ratchet down the controls. Additionally, industries that emit too much carbon dioxide could buy credits from those that emit less or otherwise mitigate the damage.

Environmentalists are skeptical, saying a whole new set of problems could develop from what they consider a yet-unproven technology.

"The term clean coal ignores the consequences of coal mining, particularly the mining practices of mountaintop-removal coal mining," said Glen Besa, Virginia director for the Sierra Club. "There's nothing clean about mountaintop-removal coal mining. It's devastating."

Mary Anne Hitt, deputy director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, describes what she calls the life cycle of coal as a problem that's not cured with control of carbon emissions.

"From the damage caused from the mining ... the pollution that coal creates, not just in global-warming pollution but the mercury and the soot and the smog that cause so many health problems and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and premature deaths every year, and then the coal ash that is left over that contains toxic ash ... you have major problems being created along every step of the way when you burn coal to create electricity," Hitt said.

"Clean coal is a good advertising slogan for the coal industry, but I don't think it will ever be the reality on the ground," she said.

The Sierra Club advocates a transition away from coal -- and the use of renewable energy and conservation to meet the nation's energy needs.

According to the Sierra Club Web site, the Beyond Coal Campaign "aims to move our economy toward a clean energy future by stopping new coal-fired power plants, phasing out existing plants, and keeping the massive U.S. coal reserves in the ground and out of international markets."

Sure, Besa said, the technology is out there to scrub power plant emissions of some pollutants, but it doesn't remove 100 percent, and an efficient means of carbon capture and storage has yet to be fully demonstrated.

"In the end, you need to factor in all the costs and determine whether there are investments in renewable energy and particularly in efficiency that are cheaper," Besa said. "That's really what it comes down to."

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