I’m not saying coal ‘was’ ever clean, we have to find a technology that can make it. The problem with any system today (other than the one Sunflower is pursuing) is that it is extremely costly to the power plants to install, and offers no potential for profit.

Alright, let me step into an environmentalists shoes for a second and look at the US energy portfolio. Let’s say I feel global warming is a critical issue that needs to be resolved in the next decade. The US has roughly 615 coal power plants, and countless gas-fired power plants operating today. What would have a greater effect on lowering CO2 emissions, just halting all coal plant construction, or finding a way to clean up those 615 coal plants that are ‘spewing pollution into the air.’

The ironic part about this debate is that finding a clean coal technology that so many of you claim is ‘non-existent and will never exist’ is critical to your cause. 50% of our country’s electricity is generated from coal, and another 22% from natural gas. Wind and solar make up less than 3%. If I was really concerned with lowering our country’s CO2 emissions and cleaning up other pollutants from coal plants, I think I would let the scientists and inventors do their job to find a clean coal technology. If you stop these two plants from going through, congratulations. For all of us, lets just hope Greenfuel technologies finds another ‘dirty coal plant’ in the 615 that exist in this country to prove its technology on, because your cause is ultimately impeding the greater cause of environmentalists around the country.

1. There is no such thing as clean coal.

2. Water is required as a coolant and, in many cases, is also used to produce steam to turn the turbines that converts the energy from burning coal into electricity. Given the rapidly falling water levels in Kansas, can we afford to waste our water on this form of energy production when alternatives such as wind are available?

Tennessee Coal Disaster Three Times Larger Than First Projected

“In other news, cleanup efforts continue in Tennessee to combat the largest coal ash spill in US history. The Tennessee Valley Authority now says 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic coal sludge spilled out of a coal plant retention pond last week, burying homes and roads. That is three times the size of the TVA’s initial estimate. The amount of ash released would fill 450,000 standard dump trucks. A TVA spokesperson said that tests show elevated levels of lead and thallium in water near the breach. The Environmental Protection Agency reported that “very high” levels of arsenic were found in a water sample collected from the affected area and that several heavy metals have also been found in quantities “slightly above drinking water standards.” The sludge has flowed into the Emory River, a tributary of the Tennessee River, which provides drinking water to millions of people downstream in Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky.”

Mountaintops are being blown up for coal in the Appalachians, communities are getting the boot, and the natural environment is suffering. We can NEVER have those mountains back in pristine form.

It is time that people wake up and see the unstable future we are creating for humanity and all life on earth. Coal production has got to stop.