While I’m Harping on Kentucky…

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… let’s talk about “Clean Coal.”  The AP provided a wonderful wire story this morning about how the National Governors Association was hosting a discussion on clean coal technology, which they apparently judge to be something other than a contradiction in terms.  Tim Pawlenty, of Minnesota and the party of the President, claims that the inherent advantage of coal is that the supply is controlled by Americans, and that the supply shows no signs of running out.That much is true.  We have more than enough coal in America to supply our needs, but the issue at hand here is the adjective “clean.”  We can, I’m sure, devise a way to break down, contain, or conceal the carbon footprint of a coal-fueled power plant if it is thoroughly incentivized to do so (obviously the reason the Governors are interested; your tax dollars at work).  The problem I see is that coal will never really be clean; to be frank, I don’t trust the mining companies to clean themselves up, and I don’t trust the regulatory bodies overseeing them to not be bought out.  As long as practices like mountaintop removal are allowed, we’ll get results like this:Of course, that’s not the half of it.  Sullying the landscape and polluting the groundwater may be acceptable to some people.  There’s also the issue of human life.  Remember, coal company safety standards are what brought you THIS.  And THIS.  The list could go on.  ”Clean and renewable” can’t be separated when the it comes to energy.

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