Carbon Capture
One thing that I'd like to address at the outset is Carbon Sequestration. Otherwise known as Carbon Capture, this technology remains mostly unproven. It is currently being used (in a nearly completely theoretical state) to bolster the argument that coal is the power source of the future.
What this means in terms of policy is that we have to be very careful to make sure that if large amounts of money are to be invested in building new coal plants that a sufficient amount of money be allocated to mitigating those new sources from the outset.
There are newer methods of capturing carbon being researched as we speak. The most promising is the use of algae to capture the carbon. This is accomplished using large arrays of tubing which allow sunlight, water, algae and plant emissions to intermingle. The algae then processes the carbon from which we are then able to extract bio-diesel as well as other useful products.
This I believe represents the largest possible net gain in the "clean coal" argument. The real problem is still there however because coal extraction is dangerous, environmentally damaging, very expensive (in comparison to wind, wave, solar, etc.) as well as leaving the concentration of political power in the hands of some particularly greedy and short sighted people. My advice to them is that they take their(our) money and their(our) people and apply them both to a more equitable and visionary solution to the problem. Buy some wind power guys!
Many people are of the opinion that carbon capture is really a transitional technology that will help us reduce carbon in the interim while we work toward the truly important goal of a completely carbon free fuel economy.
We are already seeing a huge change in the acidity of the oceans and this is negatively impacting coral reefs as well as any other marine life that precipitates calcium out of sea water to build critical biologic structures upon which their lives depend. We have no idea what the pumping of mega amounts of C02 into the deep ocean will have upon the acidity of the ocean.
Storing the C02 in wells deep underground has many hazards to circumvent as well. Large releases of carbon dioxide occasionally ocurr naturally through volcanic vents. Check out the Mammoth Mountain, California's co2 kill zone for an example of this. I'm certain that burying co2 deep in the earth will result the same sorts of hazards that naturally ocurring co2 vents present. They surprise us by filling up valleys creating lethal conditions for large low-lying populations killing all within the "zone of death".
The very, very bottomline on clean coal is that we need to reduce and eliminate coal use period. I know this sounds like a hard and fast and perhaps even untennable line drawn in the sand but this is the reality. There is no such thing as clean coal and we should not allow any weakening of our resolve based upon theoretical and thouroughly unproven technology. The simple fact is that you cannot make the extraction of coal from the earth a sustainable practice.
For more info on The myth of clean coal see; Rainforest Action Network / dirty truth about "clean"coal
