Serendipity: Stripping Away the Carbon Myths

There's a role for coal, but as a transition source to alternative energy

By Karen Telleen-Lawton, Noozhawk Columnist | Published on 05.06.2009

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One of my favorite recent TV ads is the one in which we viewers tour a “state-of-the-art clean-coal facility.” The sincere, hard hat-wearing guide leads us through the front door to the plant — revealing nothing but a dry desert. The clear message is that there’s nothing behind the claims: there’s no such thing as clean coal. Being a desert-lover who knows that there’s actually a lot happening in a desert, I thought I better check out the claims to see how clean coal — carbon capture and storage (CCS), sometimes known as scrubbing — is stacking up against my favorite alternative energies. Is CCS worth all the hype?

Karen Telleen-Lawton
Karen Telleen-Lawton

CCS is an amalgamation of simple and not particularly new technologies. It involves sorting carbon dioxide (a climate change nemesis) from the other discharges in smokestacks and other large pollution sources, then sequestering it deep in the ocean or in a stable geologic formation. According to the March 5 issue of The Economist, “There are several proven ways to isolate carbon dioxide from fossil fuels, using a variety of combustion techniques and an assortment of chemical ‘scrubbers’ to react with the gas.” Oil and chemical companies developed pieces of this technology while drilling for natural gas, for example. Indications are that carbon dioxide would remain as stable in formations as do oil, gas, and salt water.”

In 2008, the United States produced 1171.5 million short tons of coal. About half of the nation’s electricity output was generated by coal, and coal provides thousands of jobs. It’s not surprising that CCS features prominently in politicians’ environmental platforms. If we can just clean up the stuff, we can scrub our way to energy independence.

Duke Energy president Jim Rogers, whose company produces 100 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, appeared on 60 Minutes in mid-April announcing, “Global warming is a critical problem for our country that we need to work on now.”

He advocated a transition to wind, solar and nuclear power by 2050, with clean coal providing the transition. But in the opinion of NASA’s James E. Hansen, 2050 is “... way too late” and CCS is probably not the best interim technology. Converting the coal plants “... makes walking on the moon a piece of cake,” Hansen said, and would cost hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars, “And that might be optimistic.”

No clean coal production plants have been built anywhere in the world, both because the technology is prohibitively expensive and the pieces haven’t been shown to all work together. I sense a collective “not me” to the question of, “Who will develop CCS and offer it at a competitive price?” Most environmentalists don’t support the technology, supposing it will eventually leak. The Economist reports, “Greenpeace argues that CCS will never be competitive, since other low-carbon technologies, such as wind power, are already cheaper and becoming more so as time passes.” In essence, no one is really supporting the solution that world leaders hold out as the magic climate change fix.

If I were energy czar, I would keep a simple chart of continuing risks, research costs and advances in each of the alternative energies. (Maybe they’re doing that ...)  We’ll always need a potpourri of energy sources to reduce our dependence on any one course and because no single source can provide all our needs. CCS may not be the dog that is nuclear power, but its main advantage seems to be coal supply and a strong lobby. I still say the answer is “Blowin’ in the wind.”

— Karen Telleen-Lawton’s column is a mélange of observations supporting sustainability. Graze her writing and excerpts from Canyon Voices: The Nature of Rattlesnake Canyon at www.CanyonVoices.com.

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» Oscar Myer on 05.10.09 @ 02:02 AM

“CCS may not be the dog that is nuclear power.”  Why are the French so fond of “dogs?”  Ne Paz?  GW, CC, this is all unproven BS.  When you can produce one shred of evidence that Global Warming, opps, I mean Climate Change is real and is caused by man-made pollutants then let the scientific debates begin.  “Supporting sustainability” hardly qualifies one as an ‘expert’ on GM, CC.  Get thee back to Canyon Voice.  Good God, what has happened to SB?  Overrun with hippy-esqe dregs of humanity.

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» Lee Moldaver on 05.10.09 @ 10:51 AM

Thoughtful article. Everyone knows there’s no such thing as clean coal. Coal companies know it’s cheaper to advertise a “clean coal” campaign than to clean up coal mining and combustion.

The real challenge is that states with lots of coal mining jobs have lots of key U.S. senators. Most aren’t willing to risk re-election to clean up coal production or processing. Few politicians have the moral courage to act even to prevent potential future disaster for the human race.

If vision, guts, leadership, were common in Washington, Kennedy’s book “Profiles in Courage,” would not have become a best-seller and Pulitzer Prize winner.

Some scientists worry that a fail-safe point for carbon in the atmosphere is just
years, not generations, away. Latter day members of the Flat Earth Society remain
in total denial. Most citizens, politicians, editorial boards, fall somewhere in the
middle, where none are really comfortable.

Thanks again for a thoughtful essay.

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» Bob on 05.10.09 @ 12:27 PM

When ones own biased views cannot be supported by facts one often resorts to name calling. Seen any glaciers lately hot dog?

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» Realist on 05.10.09 @ 03:23 PM

Now there is a chance, that maybe, just maybe, judging by the fact that there were three ice ages and subsequent warming cycles) prior to the industrial revolution, that maybe climate change is caused by something other than carbon dioxide (which by the way is what you exhale and what trees need). There is a chance (gasp) that it is caused by say, irregularities in temperature of the sun and irregularities in distance from the sun. Ever thought about that? No, because you don’t think, you just listen and repeat. Did you know that the sun is HUMUNGUOUS (sp?)compared to the earth? Think basketball vs. pea.

Google “sun vs earth” in google images. You might be in for a shock.

Here’s a simple primer for you ex-hippies who have been out in the woods in a commune eating bean curd so long that you don’t know anything about science.

http://buythesun.com/facts.php

The Earth is very tiny compared to the Sun. If you think of the Sun as a basketball, the Earth would only be the size of the head of a pin – a mere speck.
Size Comparison - Sun vs Earth

The Earth is about 13,000 kilometers (8,000 miles) wide, whereas the Sun is roughly 1.4 million kilometers (900,000 miles) wide. This means it would take more than 100 Earths the span the width of the Sun. If the Sun were a hollow ball, you could fit about one million Earths inside of it!

For more advanced readers, try this:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=57949

There are more, if you only take the time to look and research instead of listen and repeat. Try being open minded and researching from the point of view that maybe, just maybe, there are other theories as to why the climate changes.

Maybe you will realize that this “global warming” is all a hoax, and a heck of a lot of people are making money and political points off of it, kinda like y2k. Remember that huge dud of a chicken little theory?

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» Yikes! on 05.10.09 @ 03:31 PM

No matter what they do to clean up things you people are never happy. So you don’t like coal, you don’t like oil, you don’t like nukes - WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO POWER YOUR STUPID ELECTRIC CARS WITH? TOFU?? Solar and Wind just plain ain’t gonna do it especially since we will never never ever have electric semi-trucks or trains or airplanes!! What is wrong with you people?? All the other countries that don’t give a rats posterior about the environment are going to run all over us and there will STILL be greenhouse gases, even more so as they take FULL advantage of fossil fuels while we starve ourselves to death. They will be at our borders eyeing our resources that we refuse to take advantage of and we will have no military to defend it! Liberalism is a Mental Disorder!

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» Strip tease on 05.10.09 @ 03:52 PM

Stripping Away the Carbon Myths?? How about stripping away the Global Warming myths??

Here ya go Bob - try these - there’s plenty more if you look - eventually you will realize this is all a hoax designed to tax the ^&*% out of us and bring down the USA, but by then it will be too late.

http://www.dailytech.com/A+Melting+Arctic+Happy+News+for+Mankind/article12882.htm

http://newsbusters.org/node/13948

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» DAVE PHILLIPS posting from 'The Beehive State'. on 05.12.09 @ 09:42 AM

Here in UT a funny thing just happened to our Governor a presumptive GOP candidate for next presidential timber. The trip by himself and four other Western Governors Conference representatives [with families and staffs] to mainland China went from “slow mo” to “no mo”!  First, the trip from SALT LAKE CITY WAS INTENDED TO MARKET CLEAN ENERGY FROM THE FAST GROWING COMPLEX IN mid-Utah’s Beaver County—- geo-thermal, solar and wind turbine altogether.  Next, the swine flu developed a “watchful waiting stance” as the one case [a kid in Park City who returned from Mexico] developed into several - schools were closed and The Guv elected to maintain vigilance from his office in the capitol. Then, word leaked that a Canadian Solar corporation had signed a long-term contract in China - at the precise venue where the five Governors and entourage had been destined!  The trip never happened, so the ‘back-stopping’ began with fervor in print media and at blogs of every political stripe. One observer opined that the UT Governor’s Mormon cHURCH MISSIONTO tAIWAN MADE HIM “THE PERFECT REPRESENTATIVE FOR TAKING THE [NOW DEFUNCT] TRIP” TO THE MAINLAND! Another posted replied—perhaps with more insights into cultural sensitivities and diplomatic nuance—that having been on Taiwan “was not a plus” for those on the mainland government since “all Chinese are not monolithic”!  Touche!  This comes on the heels of Utah’s First Gent stepping into another meadow muffin a few days earlier: Denying being briefed on a turbulent legal issue during the recently concluded legislative session last month.  It was the UT State Attorney General [now a likely candidate for US Attorney in Salt Lake City—for his bold, decisive leadership in standing up to said Guv] who then called a press conference to correct the historic record: “YES”, said the state A-G, “most certainly the Governor himself WAS BRIEFED on that specific issue!  I WAS THAT BRIEFER and here’s what I said ...”! Silence from The Guv’s Office.  Shock & dismay followed. As they say: Politics ain’t for the feint of heart.

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