I’ve seen a couple of attempts to make coal appear to be clean and climate-friendly recently. As I ramble around Anchorage, I can, in certain places, watch the wind cranking out clean electric power, but where would I find clean coalfired electricity? Are there any coal plants with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) that we can see working? Anywhere?
OK, there’s one operating in the U.S. Actually, there used to be one, in Texas. It ran for about four years, then shut down in 2020 after plenty of federal subsidy and research and development dollars were spent. Since about 30% of the produced power is used to run the carbon capture and sequestration equipment, the economics just didn’t pan out. Energy economics has been turned on its head. Right now, it is cheaper to install new renewable solar and wind than to keep existing coal plants running.
The important thing to remember is that pie-in-the-sky,someday-perhaps-type solutions only distract and delay solving the Railbelt gas shortfall. We need real, viable solutions like wind and solar, which can be up and running in the next few years, not the next few decades.
— George Donart
Anchorage
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