Have you heard of the "tooth fairy" or of "Bigfoot"? Have you heard of "clean coal"? You've heard of the tooth fairy and Bigfoot, but you've never seen either. Why is that? Because they are not real. This may be a huge let-down, but "clean coal" is not real either. It is made-up, just like the other two. The coal industry wants Americans to believe that clean coal is the new and improved energy of the future, but this could not be any further from the truth.
The United States was built upon cheap energy, specifically coal. For decades we have used coal as the primary source of energy. We still use coal today. However, coal is not a renewable energy and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Energy (ACCCE) wants you to believe otherwise. They have spent over $60 million on a "Clean Coal" campaign that markets coal as a renewable source of energy when it actually is not.
Coal has the highest carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than any other fossil fuel- 29% more than oil and 80% more than gas. Mercury is also an environmental concern since the burning of coal to produce electricity and heat is the single largest contributor to atmospheric mercury emissions.
Clean coal technologies (CCT) refer to the attempt to reduce pollutants of coal burning. Thus, no coal-burning power plant is really clean. Clean coal is simply the new method of handling the coal. Pollutants are redirected from one waste stream to another, still to be released into he environment. From start to finish, the process of burning coal for power is extremely harmful to our environment and a major risk to public health.
Scientists have spent over 10 years researching technologies that can make "clean coal" but no viable, commercial solution has been discovered. The United States alone has spent over $5 billion to make "clean coal" a reality.
Rich Hessler Solar
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