Mountain State Matters

The New York Times had a front page article today on clean coal…and how the industry seems to have slowed moving forward on the technology.

President Bush is for it, and indeed has spent years talking up the virtues of “clean coal.” All three candidates to succeed him favor the approach. So do many other members of Congress. Coal companies are for it. Many environmentalists favor it. Utility executives are practically begging for the technology.

But it has become clear in recent months that the nation’s effort to develop the technique is lagging badly.

In January, the government canceled its support for what was supposed to be a showcase project, a plant at a carefully chosen site in Illinois where there was coal, access to the power grid, and soil underfoot that backers said could hold the carbon dioxide for eons.

Perhaps worse, in the last few months, utility projects in Florida, West Virginia, Ohio, Minnesota and Washington State that would have made it easier to capture carbon dioxide have all been canceled or thrown into regulatory limbo.

True, this is a story in the business section, but I know few (or no) environmentalists who are into clean coal. The whole concept is basically a blind to make people think that coal could ever be environmentally friendly. If the industry is slowing down, it may be a reluctance to invest more money in something that doesn’t offer a long-term environmentally-viable solution. But probably not. It probably means people are questioning the profitability of clean coal.