Trump Promised 'Really Clean Coal,' Suggests Obliterating Funding For Clean Coal Research
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. Were going to have clean coal, really clean coal.
Released Tuesday, Trumps 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 thats 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 dont see it as a viable to solution global warming. The first clean coal plant in America
was a flailing mess. And clean coal wont become more viable without more investment in the basic science underpinning it.