Sign Into Environment 911Clean Coal: An Oxymoron
Anyone watching television over the last several years has probably
encountered the term “clean coal.” Whether in a commercial featuring a
placid nature scene or via a spokesperson for an attractively—but
vaguely—named organization such as “Americans For Environmental
Responsibility,” clean coal possesses an aura of sleek modernity.
Clean coal, however, has a lot more in common with the perpetual motion
machine of old. When the coal industry touts this phrase, it implies
that zero-emission carbon dioxide coal is just around the corner. The
truth is this: companies still mine and refine coal for customers who
subsequently burn it to create energy. Carbon Sequestration—the basic
principle underlying the promise of so-called clean coal—exists only as
an idea, and not a particularly feasible one. 
No large-scale power plants to date utilize clean techniques in their
burning of coal; even if they desired, neither set standards, nor
cost-effective methods exist to do so. Large-scale trapping and storing
of carbon dioxide emissions requires technologies not yet present, and
may not be so any time soon. Indeed, still undecided is the mounting
question as to where and how extracted carbon dioxide would be stored.
Perhaps the term clean coal was chosen because the real item has become ever more dirty to find and to process. Most experts agree we have used up the majority of our easily found, high-grade coal in the preceding 150 years. The remaining seams are either difficult to mine or beneath land already put to other use. Sanity would dictate that when a fuel source finally runs out, another should replace it; the addiction to coal has created instead drastic methods of mining the dwindling supplies left, such as mountaintop removal.
What should be merely a hyperbolic expression is, sadly, quite literal in the case of mountaintop removal. What do you do when coal is buried beneath mountaintop forest? Clear-cut the forest in order to level the mountains with dynamite, thus exposing the buried seams. Oddly, the companies touting clean coal are not so concerned with environmental awareness here; thousands of feet of the resulting debris are simply dumped in nearby valleys.
For the foreseeable future, coal will continue to be burned with carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Claims of “but this winter sure was cold!” not withstanding, the greenhouse effect remains a real, verifiable phenomenon. Carbon dioxide released in energy consumption is responsible for over 80% of the greenhouse gases extant. We are running out of planet and also running out of time.
In short, “clean coal” does not refer to a scientific breakthrough in refining or using coal nor does it refer to a magical stash of newly discovered coal that is somehow organically
“clean.” Propagating the idea of clean coal as a feasible answer to our nation’s energy needs is as irresponsible as telling drought victims that plenty of water is on its way: we merely have to return to the moon, sift through several tons of moon dust in search of frozen water, and bring it back to Earth.
Truly, our energies are better spent in promoting truly renewable energy such as hydro, wind, and solar power.
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