Rebuilding America's economic future "begins with energy," President Obama told a joint session of Congress tonight.
He said we'll need all our energy sources, including clean coal.
There is no doubt that affordable energy is critical to our economic recovery. As we meet more stringent environmental standards, we'll need to do so while holding the line on rising energy costs. After all, affordable energy is truly a basic necessity in today's society.
And remember, coal is less than one-third the cost of other energy sources.
(As for those environmental standards, take a look at how far we've come since 1970.)
Look, these are challenging times. There's no silver bullet solutions to protecting American jobs and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. That's why I always talk about the need for a silver buckshot, meaning lots of things working together to provide a bigger result.
With that in mind, click here to get involved in keeping energy affordable for American families.
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) is committed to the idea that America can have the affordable, reliable electricity we need, with the clean environment we want. ACCCE’s Behind the Plug blog is the place for up-to-date news and analysis on clean coal technology developments and energy policy progress.
Wouldn’t clean coal be wonderful? So would airplanes that run grass. I’ll get excited about those grass-powered planes when someone invents one, and I’ll be excited about clean coal as soon as somebody demonstrates some. Since they haven’t, I’m not impressed. I’m also not impressed because this site isn’t an effort to figure out the best way to get out of our energy problems, its a lobby group for coal companies to keep their bussiness going.
My son and hundreds of other coal miners are awaiting for jobs to open up in coalfields in Greene County Pa, the biggest bitimiumous coalmining area in the country. We need clean coal and we need these jobs now,
Tom, I’m really unimpressed with people who snipe from the edges about all the problems they think they can see while refusing to offer any serious alternatives.
At a time when many Americans are staring unemployment and foreclosure in the face, I for one am glad that the coal companies are trying to stay in business.
Did you know that the average employee in the mining industry earns just under $60K each year? Those wages are “wonderful” to the people who rely on them to own a home and cover their medical/food/education bills.
There’s also something “wonderful” about the fact that the coal industry has invested over $50 billion in new cleaner technologies over the past three decades. Those investments mean that coal-based electricity is now 70% cleaner, despite our use of coal having almost tripled since 1970.
There’s also something “wonderful” about the more than 1.5 million direct & indirect jobs and $240 billion the U.S. mining industry helps kick into this ailing economy each year.
So you can remain unimpressed if you like Tom. You can also stand on the edges of the debate, chucking verbal bombs into the mix. However, the rest of us are out there, in the real world, working to make the country a better place. We’re impressed by serious options and feasible alternatives — something that the coal industry is providing in abundance.
‘Clean coal’ is an oxymoron. There simply is no such thing.
There is no such thing as clean coal technology. The technology is called “scrubbing” which is an effort to remove a percentage of toxins that are released when burning coal. The process is VERY expensive and fought against by the very people who produce this sight.
THERE IS NO CLEAN COAL!
Just remember Obama also said
“If someone wants to build a coal power plant, they can;it’s just it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged for all that greenhouse gas thats being emitted.”
Obama is no friend of coal!
I have read everything I can find on both sides of the CO2 argument and am convinced that this is nothing but a plan to redistribute wealth.
Coal, and clean coal is a vital part of this countrys success
And yes I heat my home with coal and get my electricity from a coal fired plant.
There is currently no clean coal. There is however clean natural gas. Why do we not hear the administration encouraging more exploration and production of it? And then there is nuclear energy which is also clean, but no encouragement there either. The fact of the matter is that we need energy and will continue to need it. There are no perfect sources. So let’s encourage the use of all … especially those we can produce in this country, and let’s do what we can to conserve energy when possible.
I have an idea let’s build the clean enegry sources and get those working before we tear down what now powers our country. I hoped for better things from Obama. He won the election by pretending to be a progressive intellectual. He governs as a radical simpleton. End the war Mr. Obama. The one on our prosperity.
Tim:
Do you have any scientific evidence to back up your claim? We’re all for an energy debate, but we prefer to deal with facts.
Don:
I’m afraid you’re mistaken. Over the last 35 years, America’s coal-based electricity providers have invested more than $50 billion in technologies to reduce missions. Due to these investments, today’s coal-based generating fleet is 77 percent cleaner in terms of emissions currently regulated under existing Clean Air Act programs per unit of energy produced.
Ringer:
We have commented many times on Obama’s stance on coal. You can read about it here, here, here and a myriad other places on this web site.
Cathy:
Your all-of-the-above approach to energy is right on. We believe we’ll need all of our domestic resources to meet our growing demand, further reduce emissions, jumpstart the economy and decrease our dependence on foreign energy sources. Thanks for your comment.
Katy:
President Obama recognizes our energy challenges and realizes that we’ll need all of our domestic resources—including coal—to solve our energy challenges. Just take a look at the most recent stimulus package—the proof, as they say, is in the pudding.
Obama is daring the coal industry to come up with such a product as “clean coal”. So far, this hasn’t yet been invented. It would be wonderful if it existed, but it doesn’t. Clean coal is a myth. Coal is the dirtiest, most dangerous form of energy we use.
All of the comments above state good points, and I glad to see there are people out there who understand the importance of clean energy. I am also impressed with the people who recognize the importance of the coal industry in our economy; both locally and nationally. You guys are all on the right track, but what we need is time. President Obama is daring the coal industry to come up with a source of “clean coal” because if they happen to come up with such a coal, guess who is gonna corner that market. It would seem to be mutually beneficial to both coal companies and the EPA. I highly doubt that a completely new source of clean and reusable energy that is economically feasible will be hitting the market tomorrow. It takes TIME.
Eric: You’re absolutely right, it does take time. Although, the technology isn’t 20 years away — some of it is here today. There have already been technology demonstrations of greenhouse gas emissions control for existing power plants. American Electric Power has already announced the commercial deployment of these technologies at two of their larger older units – one of them is the Mountaineer Plant in West Virginia.
But not only does this take time, it takes money — it has been difficult to get the funding to make this technology possible everywhere. The people who say we’ve got to do something about the climate change issue also say they are opposed to increasing the budget for investments in clean coal technology.
I am the person who went to the DOE in Washington with the already patented technological solution for our independence of foreign oil which was a clean coal technology. It produced 96 octane fuels out of coal for twenty cents a gallon and I showed there was a 600 year supply of coal in which to do this. We already have these technologies patented. It makes a fuel that burns 30% cleaner than fuel made from oil. I also had even better inventions than that to offer to the Government. Spencer Abrahams then top fossil fuel advisor John McCutchen turned down these technologies. They have spent hundreds of billions of our dollars for research through the years and have next to nothing to show for it. Do you think we could use the technologies that I have already presented to them today?
Tim: We try to map CCT processes across the U.S on our site. You should submit it to our site when you can (the link for that is right below the Clean Coal Technology tab in the left-hand sidebar) and we’ll add it to our interactive map.
I also encourage you to check out the America’s Power Factuality Tour—our country-wide road trip in search of the people, places and technologies involved in producing cleaner domestic energy from coal.
President obama said at one time coal caused asthma