While it's a sad fact that corporate and industry interests regularly write the basis for much of our Federal legislation, there has been some impressive political maneuvering from the coal and utility industry around the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act. In many ways, the ACES bill reads like a wish list for the coal
Over at the Clean Coal Front Group Soapbox (er, blog), ACCCE Vice President of Communications Joe Lucas has a new post entitled:
As Ross Gelbspan blogged today, the Group of Eight (G-8) has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2050. It makes for great headlines, but the small print shows several things: they failed to set a short term emissions reduction goal, and a large part of their Grand Forty-Two Year Plan is to go "low-carbon" by - you guessed it - using carbon capture and sequestration, also known as the "clean coal" pipe dream.
Energy bosses at this week's World Petroleum Congress (WPC) are keen to promote carbon capture and storage (CCS) as the solution to global warming and greenhouse gas emissions.
But experts are warning not to run to the bank just yet as a dicovery Channel news article asks: Is Carbon Capture a Pipe Dream?
A new coal plant in eastern Arkansas is expected to come on line in 2010. The joke is that the supporters of the $1.3 billion coal-fired power plant are pointing to "emerging technology that could capture and store carbon..." (my emphasis)
This weeks issue of the Economist tackles the enormous topic of “The future of energy”.
The article adresses solar, geothermal, biofuels, electric cars, nuclear power, and our favorite pipedream technology- carbon storage.
CNBC's Mark Haines asks: "How Realistic is Clean Coal," and Haines does a great job off the top by pointing out that his guest, Steve Miller of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), is funded by the coal industry.
This type of disclosure is important, as it provides viewers with some valuable context when hearing what Mr. Miller has to say.
