I wrote recently about some solid policy analysis that would move the US off its massive dependency on coal for electricity toward a greater reliance on natural gas – until renewables fully kick into their potential. (Limitless, not incidentally.) A few days after my post, there was a depressing article in the “NY Times” about all this: Natural Gas Hits a Roadblock in New Energy Bill. “…influential lawmakers, from both parties, say that new technologies under development to capture and bury emissions of coal are a better bet than gas for long-term solutions to climate change.” I’ve written about carbon capture and storage (CCS) a number of times, including here and here. I am not, in short, a believer.
I am also not that much of a fan of the US Senate because of its seemingly infinite capacity to cater to special interests. Chuck Schumer, one of my senators, is quoted in the NYT article. “The Senate is more open to natural gas as a transition fuel than the House was, but the senators from the coal states who are crucial votes are going to want first consideration for coal.”
But here’s the real kick in the gut. Environmentalists who really ought to know better – a lot better – are on board for this reports the NYT: “But it is not only coal-industry lobbyists and their Congressional supporters who favor the concept of carbon sequestration. David Hawkins, a climate change expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said simply replacing coal with natural gas for power generation was ‘not a viable strategy’ because that would merely delay climate change by a few decades. ‘A coal plant with carbon capture and storage is a cleaner plant than an uncontrolled natural gas plant,’ he said.” With friends like these …
Coal is a dirty business, however you slice it. Here is one excellent website that articulates why. I’ve certainly written about this here a fair number of times, including the crime of mountaintop removal mining, and Coal – Besides Carbon Dioxide, There’s … If you want to read the definitive study on coal, buy Jeff Goodell’s magisterial Big Coal.