"We have to tell the clean coal story" in Texas

Did you know that Texas retains ownership rights to the land under the Gulf of Mexico for nine nautical miles, not just three like other Gulf Coast states, because it joined the United States as a sovereign country?

Aside from an interesting bit of trivia, that fact means that the Texas Gulf Coast has some of the most promising – and accessible – areas for the geologic storage of carbon dioxide in the world. In fact, research is underway to determine just how much CO2 rock formations under the gulf can hold. It’s one of the reasons Texas is poised to be a leader in the development and deployment of advanced clean coal technologies such as carbon capture and sequestration.

We’re on a Texas kick this week because we are at the second annual Clean Carbon Policy Summit and Project Expo in Austin, Texas, and we will be updating periodically from the event.

ACCCE’s own Ned Leonard, vice president of technology policy, participated in a panel session here on the status of clean coal projects and the costs and incentives associated with their deployment.

Ned’s presentation reminded the crowd of mostly energy industry and political officials that “we have to tell the clean coal story” and not let our opponents win with largely unfounded rhetoric. According to Ned, “People that say there is no such thing as clean coal are ignoring history.”

How right he is. I have said it before and I’ll say it again: Clean coal technologies have made today's coal-based generating fleet 77 percent cleaner in terms of emissions currently regulated under existing Clean Air Act programs per unit of energy produced.

Ned also reminded the audience that, while opponents of coal like to say they have cancelled more than 100 coal plants nationwide, 23 plants at various stages of construction are being built right now. These are plants that are light years ahead of the “dirty” coal plants of the past, and many have emissions profiles of criteria pollutants that are near zero. Further, 11 plants across the country are tackling carbon dioxide emissions with carbon capture tests and demonstration projects that will capture CO2 before it’s emitted into the atmosphere. Sounds an awful lot like clean coal to me!

Stay tuned for more information on exciting new projects and technology developments from Austin