American Coalition for Clean Coal Technology: One of the Major Players as the Senate Considers an Energy Bill

One group to follow as the U.S. Senate debate about a cap-and-trade bill heats up this summer and fall is the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, which sponsors the America'sPower.org website.

Members of the coalition include power companies and other coal-related interests. The coalition's goal is to "advance the development and deployment of advanced clean coal technologies that will produce electricity with near zero emissions."

Joe Lucas, the senior vice president for communications, recently provided an overview about the coalition's position vis-a-vis the carbon debate:

With the Senate poised to consider a climate change bill, the usual talking points from environmental public-interest groups have begun to rear their ugly heads.

As usual during these debates, there are those who predict that any movement to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will mean the end of the use of coal to generate electricity.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

If anything, it means the need to increase investments in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is even stronger than ever.

Let’s be perfectly clear about the facts: coal currently provides about 50 percent of America’s electricity. And the United States has more coal than any other fuel. A quarter of all the known coal in the entire world is here in America. In fact, we’ve got more coal than the entire Middle East has oil.

Moreover, key groups – like the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the International Energy Agency (IEA), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and others – have said that you CANNOT achieve a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale WITHOUT successful deployment of carbon capture and storage. In fact, authors of the House bill (Chairman Waxman and Chairman Markey) clearly noted that coal use will continue to grow both here in the U.S. (on a regional basis) and around the world.

So those who predict that reducing CO2 will drive coal out of the market (much like they said reducing SO2 would do the same thing 30 years ago, although coal use has since tripled even as emissions have been dramatically reduced) are once again … whistling past the graveyard.

In fact, that is where I think they are missing the boat (and why some of these groups were critical of the House bill). Their goal is to remove low-cost energy options like coal from the fuel mix … and they can’t see that such a policy would not only increase energy costs and leave America more dependent on imported energy, it would also deter meeting the key goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale. That is just misguided and bad policy.

For those of you who question if carbon capture and storage is a viable option – consider this, North America has enough storage capacity at our current rate of production for more than 900 years worth of carbon dioxide. This storage capacity is located deep underground across the continent in varying types of geological formations – including unmineable coal seams and oil and gas reservoirs.

To break it down, the U.S. and Canada are the source of 3.8 billion tons of CO2 each year, but we have storage space for 3.5 trillion tons. Divide that out and we have, in effect, a 921-year reservoir of carbon dioxide storage.

That data comes straight from the U.S. Department of Energy. Take a look for yourself.

It’s time to work together on a solution — one that is right below our feet.

You can beat that the coalition's members and leadership will be working overtime to press their views with senators and their staffs.