No such thing as clean coal

[SamuraiMom]

Don't know if this has been posted yet, but it's funny. I put it here because more people need to know the truth about coal.

http://action.thisisreality.org/page...e/RCOALergyTAF

[quinnsmum]

Thank you!

[Vancouver Mommy]

Yeah, it makes about as much sense as "light" cigarettes. Stick a questionable (or blatantly untrue) adjective in front and now it sells.

[lacysmommy]

DH has worked at a power plant that burns coal (they call it a "steam plant"), and they're still allowed to release over a ton of smoke per hour. It use to be closer to 20 tons per hour, so it definately has gone down, but certainly not "clean," either. When I went in to ask him how much smoke is released, I told him someone was talking about clean coal and he immediately said, "there's no such thing as clean coal." I think coal plant employees probably know that better than anyone, especially in his job (cleaning residue from the "steam tanks!" Thank goodness for respirators!)

[AdinaL]

How is this actionable? Is there some action that can be taken here? If not, then this should go into N&CE.

[damienian]

How Does Clean Coal Work

Clean coal technology is an umbrella term used to describe technologies being developed that aim to reduce the environmental impact of coal energy generation. These include chemically washing minerals and impurities from the coal, gasification (see also IGCC), treating the flue gases with steam to remove sulfur dioxide,carbon capture and storage technologies to capture the carbon dioxide from the flue gas and dewatering lower rank coals (brown coals) to improve the calorific quality, and thus the efficiency of the conversion into electricity.

[Danelle78]

How does 'clean coal' address the fact that coal A) is a finite resource and B) has to be mined and the environmental impact that comes from that mining. It's not a step forward, it's wasting tax payer money on the OLD system to make it look shiny and new. I think the past eight years has shown that throwing more money at a problem doesn't fix it, nor does it help the country move forward in scientific and technological advancements.

The Dirty Truth about Coal:
http://www.cleanenergy4ga.org/facts.html

Actions:

Help Stop Misleading "Clean Coal" Campaigns
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/163264856

Petition against proposed Wise County, VA coal power plant
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/...wer-plant.html

Kansas Petition:
http://www.gpace.org/?p=209

Iowa:
http://www.bleedingheartland.com/sho...o?diaryId=1886

Petition to Pres. Obama:

The recent toxic spill from a coal fired power plant in Tennessee further confirms what we already know about coal -- it's not clean, and no amount of trying to clean it makes it safe or sustainable.

http://www.progressivefuture.org/clean-coal

Mountaintop Removal - Help End It!
http://www.ohvec.org/

[paquerette]

I live in northeast PA. For being a rural area, our air quality sure is lousy. I grew up around the culm dumps, the subsidences in Scranton, the black lung survivors, the story of Centralia. No love for coal here.

[Danelle78]

Pass it on:

I just watched a video from the Reality Coalition called "smudge." I thought you'd want to see it, too:

http://action.thisisreality.org/page/invite/smudge

The coal industry has spent millions misleading people into thinking their product is "clean." It's not.

The reality is burning coal is responsible for a third of America's carbon pollution -- the chief cause of global warming -- and not a single coal plant in America captures and safely stores this pollution.

Check out the video and learn more:

http://action.thisisreality.org/page/invite/smudge

Thanks!

[monkey's mom]

***Brand new huge coal plant in the works!! THREE times the size of the Wise, VA plant.***

http://www.virginia.sierraclub.org/surry.html

The Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) is proposing a massive new coal plant near Surry, Virginia, that will release millions of tons of new global warming pollution into our atmosphere. Plans are still in the conceptual stage and that is where it must end.

ODEC's plans call for as much as 1500 megawatt capacity. Compare that to the 585 megawatt Wise County Coal Plant which will release 5.4 million tons of CO2 emissions and we're talking one helluva stinker right here in our Hampton Roads backyard! Perhaps as much as a 10 million tons a year of a stinker!

Over 1.7 million Hampton Roads residents will be affected by the proposed ODEC coal plant in Dendron (Surry County) Virginia.

##############

ODEC, a nonprofit utility based in Glen Allen, near Richmond, has promised to use the best technology available to control air pollutants. According to its application, those emissions would include 3,085 tons of nitrogen oxide a year, 3,685 tons of sulfur dioxide, nearly half a ton of lead, 283 tons of sulfuric acid mist and 2,155 tons of sootlike particulates. (Source: The Virginian-Pilot)By Scott Harper, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.

WHAT part of a those emissions seem CLEAN?

Please take a moment to click on the Sierra Club link, and send a quick form letter to protest this plant!