Clean Coal: Not a Thing
The coal companies are lying to you. Coal energy is not clean energy. It is the dirtiest form of energy generation we have. The coal companies are spending millions of dollars hoping you’ll forget this. A slick ad campaign doesn’t change the truth.
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCE) is really a conglomeration of a lot of companies that make money selling dirty coal energy. They have plastered the country in deceptive advertisements designed to make coal look like a cleaner power source than it is. Their ads peddle half-truths. For example, they will omit the italicized part of facts like these:
- Carbon sequestration technology could significantly reduce CO2 emissions, but deploying that technology on a commercial scale is decades away.
- Coal generated power emits less pollution than it did decades ago, due almost exclusively to regulations implemented under the Clean Air Act. The coal industry has fought these regulations tooth and nail and ACCCE is aggressively lobbying against regulation so it can continue producing profitable, dirty energy.
- The coal industry has spent billions of dollars on cleaning technology only because it was required to do so by laws passed once Congress realized how deadly coal pollution was.
- Zero or low-emission coal energy is “the energy of tomorrow” in the sense that it either does not exist or it is not commercially viable today.
The ironic part of it is that the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity isn’t even for cleaner coal. It has three goals.
- Dupe people into believing that coal plants are cleaner than they are
- Stop clean air standards (which are based on the best science we have) from going into effect.
- Shift as much of the coal companies’ research and development costs onto taxpayers as possible.
The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity is spending millions to keep coal as dirty as possible. Or, as the climate reality project puts it:
