These days when the expression ‘clean coal’ is being tossed around by some politicians, policy makers and industry lobbyists, a good word of caution can’t go amiss. There is no such a thing as clean coal, it’s an oxymoron, Steve Musfson writes on Energy Wire. “We can come up with ways to clean up after coal – many of them very expensive and, in the case of coal’s greenhouse gas emissions, untried. And we can use coal more efficiently than in the past. But coal itself is not clean and never will be. That is a matter of chemistry and geology”, he adds.
Elsewhere, Coal Is Dirty has an excellent analysis of a report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the status of policies advancing so-called ‘clean coal’.
Coal is just not cool, full stop.
