In Best Case, "Clean" Coal Is Still Two Decades Away

Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) is a leading global consulting company specializing in the analysis of energy markets and geo-politics. It's chairman is Daniel Yergin, a Pulitzer-prize-winning author, business leader and member of the US Petroleum Council.

And a week in advance of its big annual energy conference in Houston, CERA has released a new report on the future of clean energy. Here's what it has to say about Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), the more technical term for so-called "clean" coal.

Even in the best case, CCS is at least two decades away from large scale deployment.....Current expectations seem to underestimate the lead time needed for widespread application.

Two decades. Twenty years. 2028. Which makes you wonder what all those "clean" coal commercials are doing on TV now -- the ones which show the orange extension cord plugged into a lump of -- um -- dirty coal.

The Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC), a very poorly concealed coal industry front group, has a $35 million war chest to spend on its ad campaign.

Jumping the gun a wee bit, don't you think? It's probably the first instance of something being marketed 20 years before its time.

Even the US Department of Energy agrees with Yergin's group. In a 2007 report, DOE said "carbon sequestration is in its infancy." The timelines of CCS technology developement DOE published in its own report support the CERA best-case estimate -- two decades away. Twenty years. 2028.

So how come, in its announcement that canceled funding for FutureGen, DOE said it intends to have multiple, commercial-scale clean coal plants with carbon capture and sequestration technology operational by 2015 or 2016, with each of the plants capable of sequestering 1 million tons of CO2 a year?

Somebody is lying.

Or maybe it's just ABEC money talking.

See Related Stories:

• Not Enough CO2 Available for Carbon Sequestration Tests
• Ding Dong, Clean Coal Is Dead (For Now)
• Dirty Coal Plays Peek-a-Boo in Kansas
• Leading the Pack Again, Edwards Calls for Moratorium on Dirty Coal
• "Clean" Coal Will Need Clean Water: Billions of Gallons More a Day
• BP Betrayal, Part 2: First Tar Sands, Now Drilling for Coal!
• Bush Implants a Dirty Coal Crony in Key DOE Slot
• Shutting Down Dirty Coal: Free in the 1970s, $400 Billion Now. Go Figure.

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