World's first carbon capture pilot fires up clean-coal advocates
September 5, 2008

Clean Coal' Will Power Electric Cars
September 4, 2008

Global climate change is a long-term challenge that deserves long-term technology solutions.

• By 2030, the United States will need at least 40 percent more electricity than we have today, and worldwide electricity needs will double. (Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2007)
  
  
• Greater use of coal to fuel this growth is needed, with technology driving lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through advanced generation technologies and carbon capture and storage (CCS)
  
  
• Any mandatory program must be timed to coincide with the commercial, cost-effective availability of CCS technology and other new advanced technologies.

• Consumers will bear the costs through higher electricity and natural gas costs. A 15-percent CO2 emission reduction would cost the lowest-income families double their share of household income spending versus more affluent families. (Source Congressional Budget Office, April 2007)
  
  
• Limiting use of coal, which fuels about half of U.S. electricity, would result in greater use of expensive natural gas, which has cost 0 billion more than expected since the beginning of this decade. (Source: Energy Information Administration forecasts.)
  
  
• More than 29 million Americans already can’t afford their energy bills, and the high price of natural gas has put 3 million Americans out of work since 2000 due to industries moving overseas. (Sources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Industrial Energy Consumers of America.)
  
  
• Stringent carbon caps also could cause reliability concerns at a time of diminishing capacity reserves.
  
  
  • U.S. electricity demand is forecast to grow at least 40 percent by 2030, outpacing new generation by a more than three-to-one margin. (Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Outlook 2007)

• First: Build out the next generation of state-of-the-art coal-based plants to ensure efficient electric reliability. Over half of the proposed plants are “advanced combustion” or integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC).
  
  
• Second: Fund and build the .5-billion FutureGen prototype, which will couple IGCC technology with CCS. The final host site will be selected in 2007, and the plant is expected to be operational by 2012.
  
  
• Third: Aggressively pursue technologies to capture CO2 from new coal plants. See paper on CCS technologies.