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Page Outline:

1. Basic Facts
2. Clean Coal
3. What Is Washington Doing?
4. Sources

Basic Facts

• In 2007, Americans consumed 1.1 billion tons of coal.¹
• The Department of Energy expects US demand for coal to increase 48% by the year 2030.²
• There is enough coal under American soil to power the entire nation for 200 to 300 years.³
• The burning of coal, without the trapping and cleaning of sulfur and nitrogen particles, results in acid rain. Acid rain is highly corrosive and damages many objects it comes in contact with including man-made structures as well as plants and trees.⁴
• The burning of coal, without the use of “clean-coal” technology, releases large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and increases global warming.⁵

Reuters video about coal and energy
Source: Reuters⁶

Clean Coal

According to the US Department of Energy, with the technology available to the world today, 99% of coal impurities can be filtered out and 95% of acid rain pollutants can be captured before they escape into the atmosphere.⁷

The following excert was written by the US Department of Energy.

On February 27, 2003, the federal government announced FutureGen, a $1 billion initiative to create a coal-based power plant focused on demonstrating a revolutionary clean coal technology that produces hydrogen and electricity and mitigates greenhouse gas emissions. The FutureGen project was initiated in response to the National Energy Policy of May 2001, which emphasized the need for diverse and secure energy sources that could largely be provided by America’s most abundant domestic energy resource, coal.⁸

The following statistics are from the U.S. Department of Energy.⁹

Energy & Environmental Benefits [of clean-coal technology]:

• [Clean-coal plants can] Sequester at least double the amount of CO2 than the [coal plant] concept announced in 2003. Each demonstration plant would sequester CO2 at rate of approximately one million tons per year once operational – nearly enough in compressed liquid form to fill the Empire State Building in New York.
• Generate enough electricity per plant to power 400,000 households.
• Reduce emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and other gases that may be harmful to the environment.
• Build on technological R&D advancements that have been made since the concept was announced in 2003, which includes small-scale carbon sequestration projects and IGCC research.
• Accelerate timeframe for full-scale commercial operation of the IGCC-CCS plants, enabling market use as soon as the plants are commissioned in the 2015-2016 timeframe.

What Is Washington Doing?

Clean Coal Technology

According to the US Department of Energy, President George W. Bush “invested more than $2.5 billion on clean coal research and development (R&D) technology.”¹⁰

Tax Breaks For America’s Coal Industry

According to The New York Times, on June 19, 2007, “the Senate Finance Committee approved $28 billion in tax breaks. . . to underwrite renewable fuels and ‘clean coal’ technology. . .”¹¹ Also according to the Times,

“The tax package would provide $10 billion in additional breaks for companies that produce electricity from renewable energy sources like wind and solar power and methane from landfills.”¹²

In addition to the $28 billion in tax breaks, Senate Republicans had hoped to pass a bill that would require, “fuel producers to generate six billion gallons a year of coal-based fuels by 2022.” Democratic opposition, however, prevented the passing of such a bill. Senate Democrats as well as environmental groups stated that coal-based fuels would result in carbon emissions equivalent to that of oil-based fuels.¹³

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Sources