You have to give Tom Emmer credit for one thing, and that’s the fact that you know where he’s coming from. If you’re a particularly right-leaning Republican, you’re going to vote for him to be your next governor of Minnesota. If you’re completely fed up with government, you might consider casting a ballot for him as well.
Just don’t vote for him because he’s a believer in clean coal, the marketing term for carbon capture and sequestration.
During his chat with local supporters earlier this week at RBJ’s Restaurant, Emmer, when the topic of energy and the environment briefly came up, said, “We have to use the energy sources we have. We have clean coal technology.”
It’s almost like the mention of “clean coal” was a throw-in line at the end of a quote. You have to wonder how many of the 20 or so people in the restaurant left after Emmer’s chat thinking, “Yep, we have clean coal technology.”
Do we, really, have clean coal technology? If we do, where is it being used? Where are the coal-fired plants that are spewing cleaner emissions into the sky from their smokestacks? Where are the coal-fired plants that are spewing absolutely clean emissions into the sky from their smokestacks? Is this clean coal, or sort of cleaner coal? Who’s able to afford this “clean coal” technology, which involves more than a scrubber in a smokestack here and there? And if a coal-burning electrical corporation or any other coal-burning operation can somehow afford to implement clean-coal technology, are they required to do so at this juncture? Is the EPA on the ball?
This isn’t simply a rant against Tom Emmer, who can spin anecdotes about government regulation run amok with the best of them, and they resonate. President Barack Obama has mentioned “clean coal” in many speeches, and he’s never really been asked how much of this clean-coal stuff is real and currently being practiced and currently having a positive impact on the environment. He’s never really been asked if maybe clean coal is more of a concept right now that’s hugely expensive, difficult to mandate, and with less-than-ironclad results.
Saying “clean coal” doesn’t make coal clean, even if you say it a million times. Yes, we have a lot of coal right here in the good old US of A, and it is cheap compared to other energy resources. So it makes sense to try to make it cleaner, but we’re not there yet on clean coal, and we may never be there, no matter how many pro-clean coal TV commercials you see, financed by coal-friendly interests who do well when coal does well. There are people who want NASA to land on Mars, too, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be feasible, affordable or even possible anytime soon.
So let’s not jump the gun on clean coal, OK?
