Blowing Smoke

Hardwock is part of a foolish and mindless jihad against new technology for neutralizing carbon in coal, His argument is akin to expecting Michael Phelleps to have won 8 Olympic gold medals w ithout first learning how to swim. Technolgies such as carbon capture and storage must be deployed, demonstrated and widely installed in power plants. Yes, that will take time. But forestalling the day when we begin developing this technology out of the mistaken belief that solar and wind will somehow replace coal and generate half of our electricity, as coal now does, is environmental extremism at its only too famiiar worst. Even if we stopped coal's use tomorrow, ask him when will China and India, whose greenhouse gas emissions already surpass our own? Face it: without clean coal technology, there is no solution to "global" warming. LP

Evidently this jack doesn't know what scrubbers are. Nor does he know that they work at the end of the burn process. Whomever wrote this article must only listen to people akin to " earth mama, tree hugging, Sierra Club, I know everthing about the evironment closed minded types". Do you have any idea how much coal is in the earth? Do you have any inking about how many jobs have been and will be created with progess? Where does your electric come from? What powers your automobile? Wake up to 2008 Even Green Peace uses fossil fuel. Have you even heard of low sulfer coal? There seems to be alot you don't know to even attempt to write this ridiculous article.

I really do not agree with the coal powerplant operator about his biased opinion on CO2. MAN-MADE CO2 BUILD UP IN THE ATMOPHERE IS THE LARGEST THREAT TO THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF MANKIND. Two or three times the current amount of CO2 in the atmosphere will change the climate by increasing global temperatures worldwide. The level of this increase is uncertain right now, given that it depends on the unleash of natural Carbon sources such as rainforest biomass decay gasses or methane hydrates that could further enhance the phenomenon.

However I agree with coal plant operator on the fact that WE ARE ADDICTED TO THE ENERGY PROVIDED BY FOSSIL FUELS. I really think that it is possible to have clean coal by integrating technologies such as Plasma Incineration, IGCC and microalgae production in a process that produces energy and prevent the Carbon from reaching the atmosphere. I think that this process will happen before we pass the "point of no return" in 15-20 years. Believe it or not, investors are eager to vote with their capitals on the best solution to address this problem. They just need for one of the plasma incineration or algae companies to create the "break through" that will assure sustained profitability for the New Coal Industry, in the same way that the auto industry had the Model T or the software industry had Windows. Once this break through is in the market, it will be our responsibility as consumers to "vote with our wallets" to assure that these developments will survive long enough to thrive in economic terms just like personal computers and cell phones did in the last quarter of the XX Century.

Several companies have devolped a cleaner coal. Tax incentives were supposed to push it forward in Clinton's administration, but Pres. Clinton vetoed a billfrom congress.

Ya wanna know why we are still dependent on fossil fuels both domestically produced and imported...its because if we as a consumption based society are gonna be paying to use an energy source thats everything to all people all the time that we cant just simply rely upon being at our fingertips such as hydroelectric, wind, solar we want it to be fossil fuel based rather than the three sources THAT ARE FREE!!! The power producing companies dont want the American consumer to not have to pay for hydroelectric, wind, solar power use because they would be out of business. But if I want to set up a solar collection array to harness the power of the sun, or I want to construct a windmill large enough to produce power for my personal needs, or I want to construct a waterwheel or similar aparatus to harness some nearby flowing water source for hydroelectric power needs, I dont need a power company in my back pocket telling me that I cant do that because theyre being left out of the loop in not making money off me!!! Until we as individuals are allowed to tap if we have the capability the three sources of energy that are generated FREE solar, wind, hydroelectric without having the power companies in our back pockets then we as a society will NEVER move away from fossil fuel dependence. Because why would ya wanna have to pay someone else to give you a power generating source when you can tap it yourself? Its not like fossil fuels that someone else has to extract for ya to use thus we pay for it its FREE for EVERYONE so why pay for it? And theyre CLEAN energy sources to boot!!!

There is no such thing as clean coal. And coal is not a universal archetype. There are many varieties of coal and some are more prone to pollute than others. What we could have is CLEANER coal technology. Or stop funding ethanol and fund technologies that take the dirty coal and through different processes including dehumidification and steaming makes the coal cleaner and more efficient as an energy source.
K Rense, you make very little sense if any. The issue about an elcetic car has to do with the efficiency to the wheels and the ease of transmission of electricity to your home. Many more times efficient compared to going to a gas station and filling up a fuel that had to travel many miles and undergo many processes to get it to your tank. Furthermore, Gas powered vehicles are only 25% efficient to the wheels, Electric cars are close to 80%.

So...instead of working to fine tune the technology and get it released as soon as possible, we're going to do something as utterly ridiculous as say that since it isn't functional right now at this very minute, we'll fight against it. Kind of backwards here I'd say, since it doesn't exist now let's actually try and block people from helping it to become a reality. It's a shame that we're being blocked on so many technologies that can provide much cleaner fuels, all in the name of providing cleaner fuels. Doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. These latest commercials are nothing more than a direct attack on creating cleaner fuels that are less damaging to the environment, even while pretending to represent a clean environment.

I've seen this Commercial a few times. I actually took it to mean that Burning Coal using Clean Technology was so good it was exactly like Nature - Pristine and Pure. If they wanted me to think Coal was filthy they should have shown me some Black Smoke coming out of some Factory in China: The most Polluted Country in History, and not covered by the Kyoto Protocols.

Got to LOVE an Academic,(PhD) hawking a product (he is probably being paid to do by some Energy DRUG Co) that gives a Hotmail address, instead of the Co Email Address!

Go Shill somewhere else, prove it, or loose it.

By, Green Boy

By, Green Boy

This article underscores a point most people elect to ignore -- electric vehicles are, for the most part, coal-buring vehicles, albeit two steps removed. The electricty comes overwhelmingly from coal-fired generating plants. Even worse, whenever energy is converted from one form to another -- i.e. from coal to steam, from steam to electricity and then from electricfity to motive power, there is a significant energy loss. Each conversiion may lose from 25% to 50% of the energy released. This makes electric cars far more polluting than relatively lightweight, gasoline powered vehicles. Not only are elecric cars not a solution to global warming, they are far worse than efficient small gasoline-powered vehicles.

They mislead the public with "facts" that coal powered plants to contribute one third of the CO2 emitted. It is intended to make us believe that coal powered plants produce one third of all CO2 entering the atmosphere. Actually only 5% of all CO2 is man made. The rest is natural. These statements cause me to lose all creditability with hhese people.

Coal to gas or gassification sounds doable. Naturral gas meets current air standards and once you convert coal to gas you have a clean burning fuel. CTL coal to liquid is looking good in early trials the Air Force is funding this for a fuel source in an emergency. The green algae biofuel project will make a biofuel while it cleans up a dirty fuel. Green Algae thrive on co2 this method can clean up coal co2 emmisions plus make you some biofuel in the process.

I'm a coal fired power plant operater and you should not talk about something if you haven't lived it. Our plant is well within the limits set by the EPA on emissions including NOx and SOx. I like how these people fail to mention that most coal fired plants are changing to meet regulations. Our plant has a scrubber, over fired air, urea injection, fly ash recovery systems, etc. all of which help with emissions. Everyone likes watching TV, using computers, heating their houses etc. and it's thanks to the coal fired power plants. Keep pushing to close these plants and see how you like blackouts! These plants keep the United States running with relatively low cost. Most people can not afford alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal etc. These sources of electricity are not feesible for the amount of electricity we use. People like having constant power on demand 24/7/365, those sources can not provide that. Wake up people CO2 is not a harmful gas, you emit it every second you breathe and is converted into oxygen by plant life. How about we put emission controls on these peoples mouths because I think they are emitting too much CO2.

Green algae biofuel looks promising. It also may be the answer for co2 emmisions and cleaning up coal. The algae eats co2 and you get a bio fuel. Kill two birds with one stone, clean up coal and get a biofuel as the byproduct. The other major thing with coal is Mountain Top Removal. The practice of destroying appalachia by blowing the tops off the mountains and pushing the overburden into pristine valleys covering clear water streams.
I don't know how we can rail about the burning of the Amazon forest and allow this practice at home. Check out East Ky. and WVa. on google earth. Its startiing to look like a moon scape. Look at the watershed area of the Fishtrap Dam in Pike County Ky. a Corps of Engineers operated flood control project.

I'm a coal fired power plant operater and you should not talk about something if you haven't lived it. Our plant is well within the limits set by the EPA on emissions including NOx and SOx. I like how these people fail to mention that most coal fired plants are changing to meet regulations. Our plant has a scrubber, over fired air, urea injection, fly ash recovery systems, etc. all of which help with emissions. Everyone likes watching TV, using computers, heating their houses etc. and it's thanks to the coal fired power plants. Keep pushing to close these plants and see how you like blackouts! These plants keep the United States running with relatively low cost. Most people can not afford alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal etc. These sources of electricity are not feesible for the amount of electricity we use. People like having constant power on demand 24/7/365, those sources can not provide that. Wake up people CO2 is not a harmful gas, you emit it every second you breathe and is converted into oxygen by plant life. How about we put emission controls on these peoples mouths because I think they are emitting too much CO2.

Are these the same people who told us that Ethanol is a Great alternative ? It has already been dubbed for it's damage on engine wear . Why aren't they looking more into disposing of our Trash in Landfills as a means of Energy, and getting Rid of the Landfill waste at the same time. I think everyone is wanting a Better enviroment But, telling us to stop what we have Before you come up with alternatives is Just Not a Solution. Solar,Wind, and alternative Fuels is Just NOT enough to take the place of what we already are using.BUT, it is a start and this will get people thinking.