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These days, clean coal mostly seems to refer to reducing carbon dioxide emissions. The issue of coal and global warming is simple: Coal is a horridly dirty fuel that contributes frightening amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and we can't afford to increase the amounts of carbon dioxide we add to the atmosphere. Newer ideas behind the "clean coal" phrase are gasification - a thermo-chemical, non-burning way to get energy from coal - and carbon capture and storage/sequestration (CCS). Remember the great idea of sending nuclear waste into space? CCS is the carbon counterpart: Take our world-destroying gas and pump it into underground holes or deep ocean caverns.
Herein lies the dilemma: Should we spend money and time researching and developing technology to make coal less awful? Or is this a stupid misdirection of human capital, better spent on solar, wind, hydro, ocean power, and conservation? Within these basic choices lie multitudes of questions about global responsibility, costs per kilowatt, the potential of technology, the role of corporate money in government policy, and the will of the people.
Does coal have environmental benefits to rival solar and wind? No. But it's easy to burn and there is tons of it. That bounty and our hunger for electricity complicate things. And boy, is it complicated.
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