Trump Promised 'Really Clean Coal,' Suggests Obliterating Funding For Clean Coal Research

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Trump Promised 'Really Clean Coal,' Suggests Obliterating Funding For Clean Coal Research

Sidney Fussell
Yesterday 4:30pm

When signing his March executive order to revise the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era policy measure to limit power plant carbon emissions, President Trump promised coal miners in attendance, “My administration is putting an end to the war on coal. We’re going to have clean coal, really clean coal.”

Released Tuesday, Trump’s 2018 budget proposal cutting funding for clean coal by 85%.

“Clean coal” refers to emerging technologies that capture the carbon released from coal-burning power plants. The carbon is then stored and, in many cases, pumped into depleted oil fields to extract additional fossil fuels in a process called “enhanced oil recovery.” Clean coal is one of the few energy technologies that’s seen tepid support among both environmentalists and the fossil fuel industry, because in theory it lowers carbon emissions from coal plants without shutting them down. Unfortunately, the tech is incredibly expensive and most experts don’t see it as a viable to solution global warming. The first “clean coal” plant in America was a flailing mess. And clean coal won’t become more viable without more investment in the basic science underpinning it.

[Freethinker65]

1. ..."so clean you will not ever be able to see it, as if it just disappeared like all of my promises"