The British government has given the go-ahead to a new generation of coal-fired power plants incorporating carbon-capture and storage technologies in a bid to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Clean coal has been met with criticism and the policy seems just a little bit flaky:
Up to four new plants will be built if they are fitted with technology to trap and store CO2 emissions underground.
The technology is not yet proven and would only initially apply to 25% of power stations’ output.
Green groups welcomed the move but said any new stations would still release more carbon than they stored.
Uh huh. According to UK energy secretary Ed Miliband:
Once it is “independently judged as economically and technically proven” – which the government expects by 2020 – those stations would have five years to “retrofit” CCS to cover 100% of their output.
Kind of a glass quarter-full situation then. And it might not even work. But do check out the details.
Carbon dioxide is not the problem with coal (and considering the relationship between atmospheric CO2 concentrations and plant growth rates, probably not something that we should be freaking out about overmuch), the problem with coal is releasing heavy metals from prehistoric plant matter directly into the atmosphere.