While It Isn’t Green, Biggest Energy Winner Under Obama May Be ‘Cleaner’ Coal (Part. 1 of 2)
Submitted by EnergyTechStocks.com
Editor’s Note: In keeping with its policy to be solely a news source, this EnergyTechStocks.com article is presented for information purposes only.
Posted: November 3, 2008
As much as Barack Obama has called for a green energy revolution, if he is elected president tomorrow, the U.S.’s dire economy is likely to cause him to rethink his plan to spend $15 billion a year for the next 10 years to develop alternative-energy businesses.
But there is one energy technology – one that Obama personally favors that should garner bipartisan Congressional support – that mightn’t be affected. As unlikely as it may sound, “cleaner coal” technology could do better in the first year of an Obama administration than solar, wind or other greener energy tech sectors.
Ironically, cleaner coal’s main advantage is that it may be a dud. At the very least, experts say it could take up to 10 years to know whether cleaner coal technology – really technologies, plural – will be viable. So while the sour economy may forestall Washington’s big green spending plans, accelerated research on cleaner coal should get approved on the grounds the U.S. can’t afford to wait to find out whether new technology will make coal-fired power plants a viable choice in meeting the huge expected increase in U.S. power demand without generating dangerously high levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
Indeed, the situation surrounding coal is getting very scary very quickly. Coal is the world’s largest single source of electricity. For the U.S. and China especially, coal also is highly valued because, unlike oil, it’s a nationally secure energy source. But coal also is the single biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions and the current generation of coal-fired power plants permits the escape of dangerously high levels of carbon dioxide and other pollutants such as mercury. Advocates such as former U.S. Vice President Al Gore have called for a coal-less future. But there are trillions of dollars of capital already invested globally in coal-fired power plants and new investing in alternatives such as solar and wind are expected to be slowed by the economic crisis.
For all of the above, knowing whether coal can be burned relatively cleanly shapes up as THE energy and environmental question of the next decade. Research isn’t just needed – it’s urgently needed.
If cleaner coal research is accelerated under an Obama administration, which companies are likely to benefit? More on that tomorrow, November 4, Election Day in the United States.
For more please see:
IEA Warns Only Carbon Sequestration Can Prevent Environmental Nightmare In 25 Years or Less
