Big Coal on Clean Energy Side?

For all the information out there, currently there is nothing being done to stop big coal at a macro level. Accepting the notion that coal is in our foreseeable future is Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy.

Duke Energy is one of the three biggest power companies in the United States and the largest consumer of coal with 46 million tons a year. It is not surprising that the CEO of such a large company would see coal in the future, is it? 

What may be surprising is that Rogers is constructing a plant in Edwardsport, Indiana that produces electricity with the lowest carbon intensity of any coal plants in the nation. It is the first large scale commercial use of this technology, drastically reducing emissions and capturing and storing any carbon dioxide produced.

Today we burn coal directly for electricity, producing tons of co2 in the process. Clean burning takes the co2 and captures it, producing hydrogen, a cleaner fuel.

Rogers calls it “cleaner” rather than “clean” stating, “because clean is an absolute zero”.

Well duh, that’s the point.

A point not lost on Greenpeace, who called the Edwardsport plant the worst greenwash in history.

Almost simultaneously Duke Energy is building more than one new coal fired power plant. In North Carolina, one is under fire, as critics say this is locking us into another 50 years at least of coal emissions. Advocates are saying that the plan in Indiana is good public relations, while the North Carolina plant is good profit.

I don’t think we can expect coal companies at large to solve the problems we face with admissions.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."  -Margaret Mead

By Peter Browning