Blowing Smoke

II beg to differ with Daniel Stone's suggestion that there is no such thing as "CLEAN COAL". There not only IS clean coal available technology, but most of their concerns on power plants can be solved RIGHT NOW!! Our product, PETROMIST, can control the effluient from any smokestack and elliminate the hydrocarbons that are released.

Robert G. Bayless, PhD
rgbayless@hotmail.com

I used to work at Argonne Nation Lab near Chicago. They have used coal scrubbers to clean the coal before burning for years. When the coal comes out of the mines it is dirty but once it is clean there is only white smoke and NO poluted air!

I used to work at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. They have used coal scrubbers there for years. The coal gets cleaned and there i NO SMOKE.

Brian is unrealistic dreamer if he thinks the US can get all its electricity from renewables within 10 years. The wind generators are already showing problems with migratory birds, physical reliability, distribution lines, and visual pollution complaints. He can't provide a realistic way that the other sources can produce enough power to replace the primary sources we have now including coal and natural gas. Has anyone come up with a storage solution for spent nuclear material yet? What will 100 million drivers plug their Chevy Volts into when the coal power is shut off?

Coal produces >50% of the electricity used in the US today and is our most abundant source of domestic energy. The only other realistic alternative is nuclear energy. Any suggestion that we can generate 100% of our electricity by some other means within 10 years is simply foolish.

Coal produces >50% of the electricity used in the US today and is our most abundant source of domestic energy. The only other realistic alternative is nuclear energy. Any suggestion that we can generate 100% of our electricity by some other means within 10 years is simply foolish.

Doesn't make any difference. The Obama one will "bankrupt the coal industry" regardless of the facts.

Not only is there no such thing as "Clean coal", the way it is mined destroys the earth! Strip mining and mountain top removal are incredibly destructive! Once the top of a mountain is gone, there's no getting it back!! Clean energy can come from the wind and the sun, and we will still have an earth left for our children to enjoy.

As you read the article you realize that hey keep saying in the United States. Well that may be true, but there is a 30MW plant in operation in Spremberg/Germany. This plant is operated by Vattenfall a Swedish power company. At this plant they condense and liquify the CO2 emissions and place it in long term storage. Maybe Newsweek can research this plant and write an article about it. All thay have to do is look it up on the internet under Vattenfall.

As you read thru this article, it keeps saying no plant in the United States. that may be true, but there is a plant that is in operatin in Spremberg, Germany. It is a 30MW plant that condenses CO2 emissions, liquifies it and places it in long term storage. This plant is ran by Vattenfall a Swedish Power Company. Maybe Newsweek can research this plant/ look it up on the internet and write an article about it.

The man is simply wrong, and i doubt he has ever been within 10 feet of an actual coal boiler. A lot of stack emissions simply are emissions. Depending on weather, visible stacks emissions maybe see, and or not. Their are many factors for stack emissions, and generally every boiler is governed by stringent state regulations. The emissions, especially white clouds could be caused by humidity, but dense clouds are more likely leaks in the water wall headers or boiler water tubes. Often a yellow cloud will be seen, this is sulfur. Also, there are often a blue cloud which is routinely ammonia gas vapors, and weather factors mixing. I love the way activist jump on a mission without the facts, reading propaganda and proving theories....Being an engineer, I've dealt with boilers in labs and in industry. Get the facts right, do some real test...because i guarantee they haven't they just go by whats in coal. Coal is another animal of its own. No two coal sources are the same, you have river basin coal that is totally different than coal from illinois, the chemical bonds simply are not the same with one having more sulfur and the other more chlorine. A form of clean coal, is that called microwaved coal, where all moisture is pulled out losing a lot of sulfur/chlorine resulting in lower nox emmissions. But again i love tree huggers!

The man is simply wrong, and i doubt he has ever been within 10 feet of an actual coal boiler. A lot of stack emissions simply are emissions. Depending on weather, visible stacks emissions maybe see, and or not. Their are many factors for stack emissions, and generally every boiler is governed by stringent state regulations. The emissions, especially white clouds could be caused by humidity, but dense clouds are more likely leaks in the water wall headers or boiler water tubes. Often a yellow cloud will be seen, this is sulfur. Also, there are often a blue cloud which is routinely ammonia gas vapors, and weather factors mixing. I love the way activist jump on a mission without the facts, reading propaganda and proving theories....Being an engineer, I've dealt with boilers in labs and in industry. Get the facts right, do some real test...because i guarantee they haven't they just go by whats in coal. Coal is another animal of its own. No two coal sources are the same, you have river basin coal that is totally different than coal from illinois, the chemical bonds simply are not the same with one having more sulfur and the other more chlorine. A form of clean coal, is that called microwaved coal, where all moisture is pulled out losing a lot of sulfur/chlorine resulting in lower nox emmissions. But again i love tree huggers!

What about the low rank coal to liquid project that Silverado Mines is working on? Supposedly, they can convert coal at a BTU barrel equivalent price of about $20.00 per barrel. They were going to build a pilot plant in Mississippi but I don't know what really happened to it.

It amazes me that one of the biggest problems with renewable energy is never talked about by those who promote the use of it, and that is the fact that wind and solar are only 35% available. How will you anchor the electrical grid with a power source that can't handle large load swings? Have they forgotten that it is the large coal burners, hydros and nuclear plants along with the modern gas turbine plants that enable them to reliably turn their lights on? Also they never talk about the large government subsidies and tax cuts they they need to have in order to bring that energy cost down to the point where it can be somewhat competitive with our conventional generation costs. I operate a power plant and am all for new and better ways to produce our power, but these people touting "green energy" need to be telling the whole truth and not just their biased and shaded view of it.

Not just respiratory disease, but cancer. There is a high rate of children diagnosed with cancer at Marsh Fork Creek Elementary School in West Virginia, an elementary school located near a slurry compound. Coal has corrupted our politicians. When asked, Governor Manchin did nothing to keep Massey Energy from trying to take over Coal River Mountain, even though Massey had not obtained the proper permits. Manchin said he could not interfere. Manchin had no problem interfering in court proceedings when WV citizens filed a class action lawsuit against DuPont Chemicals, then landed in the New York Times for it, something he's trying to use against Coal River Mountain Watch because we're all dumb mountain folk who he thinks cannot see the flaws in his ethics and double-speak. I did not vote for him. West Virginia democrats should be renamed dixiecrats. Additionally, it was announced that Manchin would still throw himself an inaugural party this January although many other state governors have elected not to in these tough financial times. Manchin states that West Virginia's economy is good enough for him to go ahead and do this. West Virginia is the second poorest state in the country - how is that indicative of a good economy? The pending coal technology is not the only thing that's not clean about coal.
Coal River Mountain Watch would like to get a wind farm at the Coal River Mountain site, something that can't be done if Massey gets to level the mountain and continue terrorizing our state. Look up Larry Gibson, Marsh Fork Creek Elementary School, or the documentary "Black Diamonds," and you'll really get a sense of how bad coal is, not just for the environment, but for people and morale.

I hope everyone doesn't forget another side to the coal issue, respiratory disease. If you want to know what America's future is with coal still in the picture, take a look at China's air pollution from it's many coal-burning power plants and the rise in almost all forms of lung disease there. They wear masks to try to protect themselves from the air they breathe. Do we want that?
I think Mr. Hardwich is right in saying that no more coal plants should be built without a mechanism to capture the emissions and SAFELY store them, (or find a use for them). I also share his doubts about whether that can be a reality.
We need to look at our energy situation from all angles, our health, our future, and our prosperity. Renewable energy can deliver on all of those fronts. Can coal?

On the off chance that human industry is responsible for global warming, shouldn't we err on the side of caution and move away from fossil fuels just in case? We will need to eventually anyway. For those of you who don't remember 4th or 5th grade science class, fossil fuels are non-renewable resources. As such, now is as good a time as any to move to renewable fuel sources, such as that gigantic and non-proprietary nuclear fusion reactor in the sky we call the sun.

For the comment that there???s not a single coal plant in American that captures and stores harmful emissions is not true. As the Black Hills Corporation???s Gillette Energy Complex has two in operation and one under construction in Northeast Wyoming just East of Gillette that proves clean coal technology has already made the use of coal on average 80-85 percent cleaner than those built 30 years ago, That's a fact. With over $6 billion in clean coal research going on right now there chances of making coal cleaner keep getting better and will make future coal plants even closer to emissions-free. I???m not an employee of the company or have ever worked for any company that is. I???m retired and live in the area and have seen the improvement over the years.