Frequently Asked Questions

• What is clean coal technology?

• Clean coal technology refers to any technology associated with reducing the emissions from coal-based electricity generation. The use of the term clean coal precedes the advent of our organization. Back then – the mid-1980s - Congress used the phrase in reference to technologies that reduced sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and other emissions.

  Take this excerpt from U.S. Senate Bill 911 from April 1987:

  “The term ‘clean coal technology’ means any technology … deployed at a new or existing facility which will achieve significant reductions in air emissions of sulfur dioxide or oxides of nitrogen associated with the utilization of coal in the generation of electricity.”

  The initial goals of the clean coal program – developing technologies to reduce sulfur oxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions, mercury (Hg) and other hazardous air pollutants – were a success. As a result, the process of using coal to generate electricity is now 77 percent cleaner in terms of emissions currently regulated under existing Clean Air Act programs per unit of energy produced.

  But clean coal is also an evolutionary term, meaning that it will expand to mean more things in the future than simply the technologies we use today. That is why the coal-based electricity sector is working hard to bring the next generation of advanced clean coal technologies to the marketplace – including those technologies to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2).

  Currently, there is more than $6 billion in clean coal research underway in 41 states, helping us get to this next pinnacle of clean coal technology. Take a look at this map — chances are there’s a clean coal technology research project taking place near you.

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• You have voiced opposition for two pieces of federal climate legislation. What kind of climate policy would you support?

• For additional background on our position with respect to federal carbon management legislation, go here.

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• Just how clean is “clean coal”?

• Over the last 40 years, America’s coal-based electricity providers have invested over $50 billion in technologies to reduce emissions. Due to investments like these, coal-based generating fleet is 77 percent cleaner in terms of emissions currently regulated under existing Clean Air Act programs per unit of energy produced. Take a look at this chart, which uses data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Some might say this is a job well-done, but we say it is simply a good start. We’re committed to further investments in advanced technology to reduce emissions and make coal a cleaner energy resource to meet America’s energy needs – including technologies to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2).

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• What is the cost of coal compared to other fossil fuels?

• Coal generates electricity at almost one-fifth to one-eighth the cost of other fossil fuels.

  Here is data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Office of Coal, Nuclear, Electric and Alternate Fuels, based on the year-to-date average cost in dollars per million Btu for October 2008 (the latest available data):

  Coal — $2.04
  Petroleum liquids — $16.67
  Natural gas — $9.58

  (Take a look for yourself: www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm.pdf; Electric Power Monthly, January 2009; please see P. 7; Table ES2.B. Summary Statistics: Receipts and Cost of Fossil Fuels for the Electric Power Industry by Sector, Btus, 2008 and 2007)

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• How much coal do we have?

• The United States has more coal than any other fuel. A quarter of all of the known coal in the entire world is here in America, and large coal deposits can be found in 38 states. In fact, we’ve got more coal than the entire Middle East has oil. At the current rate of consumption, we are capable of meeting domestic demand for more than 200 years.

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• How can we continue to use coal and also address the issue of greenhouse gases?

• With the right investments in technology, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make the science of climate change irrelevant. If we continue to fight about the science, we’re going to be sitting here 20 years from now still arguing about it.

  The technology isn’t 20 years away — some of it is here today. There have already been technology demonstrations of greenhouse gas emissions control for existing power plants. American Electric Power has already announced the commercial deployment of these technologies at two of their larger older units – one of them is the Mountaineer Plant in West Virginia.

  Unfortunately, it has been difficult to get the funding to make this technology possible everywhere. The people who say we’ve got to do something about greenhouse gases also say they are opposed to increasing the budget for investments in clean coal technology.

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• Aren’t renewable energy sources a better option?

• Despite the moniker, coal is not king — coal is a part of a really good army. With energy demand continuing to go up, we’re going to need all of our available domestic energy resources to help meet that demand. That means that renewable energy has an important role to play in our energy portfolio.

  However, in most cases renewables simply are not a suitable replacement for coal.

  Electricity is produced in base-load power and peaking power. Baseload power is the energy necessary to keep the electricity grid energized and meet a constant demand. Peaking power is energy that comes on and off throughout the day, when electricity usage and energy demand goes up. Peaking power uses intermittent power resources like solar and wind that produce electricity only when there’s sufficient direct sunlight or sufficient sustained wind speed. For baseload power, you must use so-called hard-path fuels such as coal, which can provide power 24 hours per day.

  Technology is going to evolve, and coal is one of those unique bridge fuels that will take us to that next energy renaissance. As a matter of fact, coal may fuel the next energy renaissance. For example, hydrogen can be produced from coal.

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• Are coal producers at odds with the environmental movement?

• Each one of us is an environmentalist, and every one of us has a great responsibility to protect the environment. Climate change is a global issue that is going to require a global solution. Coal has to be part of that solution, not a target of the policy.

  Unlike folks who are saying that reducing greenhouse gases in the utility sector will require us to use different energy sources, we believe that the only way to get that done is to figure out how to use our current energy resources differently. If we don’t develop the technology here, it won’t make its way to China, India and other places in the developing world that will continue to use massive amounts of coal no matter what we do in the United States. And if we want to solve a global issue such as climate change, China and India must be part of the solution.

  We recognize that there is a shared commitment between electricity generators and those that they serve to reduce utility greenhouse gas emissions. The conversation now is about how best to do that in a way that meets the stated environmental goal, protects access to affordable, reliable energy and ensures energy security.

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• What is the industry doing to protect the environment from mountaintop mining?

• There are new regulations that carefully outline what can and cannot be done with regard to certain types of surface mining.

  Those involved in the production of coal care about the environment, and that’s why they comply with current rules that require coal operators to establish a buffer around streams. There are other steps in place to make sure extraction is as clean as we can feasibly make it. And any project undertaken has the endorsement of the Army Corps of Engineers on ecological issues.

  For more information on mining, please visit the National Mining Association at www.nma.org.

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• Where do you stand on plug-in hybrid cars?

• Electric vehicles are great for Americans for several reasons.

  First, the energy these cars run on will have to come from somewhere – and if it is plugged in, odds are good that the electricity charging them will be coal generated. By relying more on domestic coal and less on imported oil, we’re greatly increasing America’s energy security.

  Plus, if the plug-in hybrid’s electricity can be produced utilizing CCT and carbon sequestration, we can also greatly reduce the greenhouse gases that are currently being released into the atmosphere by every car on the highway without increasing emissions in the utilities sector.

  That sounds like a win-win to us.

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• What do you say when people say that your campaign is misleading?

• There’s an old saying: If you can’t like the facts, shoot the messenger – and people who say that our campaign is misleading never can provide one single fact that is inaccurate. People are entitled to that opinion, but opinions won’t keep the lights on! We’re all for a debate — but it needs to be about the facts.

  Here are the facts as we see them:

  • We rely on coal today (about half of our electricity is produced by coal). Is there any debate on that subject?
  • We’re going to need to rely on coal for the foreseeable future, both here in the U.S. and around the world. Does anyone else have any non-partisan forecast that shows that not to be the case?
  • Generating electricity from coal is less expensive than several other energy alternatives. Does anyone doubt the U.S. Department of Energy data backing that up?
  • To date, the use of technology has made it possible to produce more electricity from coal to meet our country’s growing energy demand with fewer emissions of pollutants regulated by federal and state clean air laws. (This does not include greenhouse gases, but we’ll get to that in a second.)
  • Finally, we believe that by continuing to invest in technology, we can reduce emissions even further, including the capture and safe storage of CO2.

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• Who are your members and where does your funding come from?

• The America’s Power campaign is sponsored by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). ACCCE is a coalition of over 40 leading companies from the electricity generation sector, the transportation sector, coal producers and other manufacturers and vendors. Our funding comes from our member companies. We believe in transparency — click here for a full list of our members.

  ACCCE (or “Ace,” as folks have been calling us) is the combination of two organizations that have been around for years. One of them is the Center for Energy and Economic Development (CEED), a group that had worked since 1992 at the state level on energy and environmental issues. The other organization is Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, an eight-year-old group in charge of running communications campaigns. We merged those two organizations and added another dimension: federal lobbying on climate change legislation.

  In addition to ACCCE’s funders, the America’s Power campaign is also proud to have the support of over 185,000 community leaders from all across America. These folks are just regular people like you who believe that we can meet America’s growing energy needs by relying on domestic energy resources, while keeping energy costs affordable for consumers and our economy, and continuing strong progress in protecting the environment by investing in efforts to bring new technologies to the marketplace.

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• Why are you getting involved with lobbying?

• Congress is really getting focused on the issue of climate change, which is the most complicated environmental issue of our time. As more members of Congress become educated on the issue, they want to know the industry's position. Technology is evolving and we're confident that it will allow coal to continue to be a major force in America's energy future. The meshing of technological possibilities and congressional interests makes the formation of ACCCE a timely one.

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• How long is it going to take until we have mastered carbon-capture technology?

• We’re continually making great progress on bringing these new technologies to the marketplace.

  Today, there are a number of ongoing field demonstrations looking at various technology options that could work with the diverse array of different coal-based power plants that make up the current generating fleet. We’re optimistic that these technologies will begin entering the marketplace within the next 10 years, but achieving wide-scale deployment of these technologies will depend, in large part, on investments we make with industry and the federal government working together to ensure that these goals are met.

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• When you sequester carbon, where do you put it?

• The CO2 was in the ground (in the coal) and is released when the coal is combusted. With advanced technology, we can capture that CO2 before it goes into the atmosphere and put it back in the ground where it came from.

  It’s not a new concept, of course. The oil and gas industry has been injecting CO2 into existing oil and gas wells for decades in order to increase production. In fact, some of the captured CO2 from coal-based power plants can be used to help increase domestic oil and gas production (thus also helping reduce our reliance on foreign oil). There will also be other beneficial uses for captured CO2, and while there will need to be a clear and specific set of regulatory policies to ensure that we’re safely storing CO2 and monitoring it, there is no reason to believe that this cannot be done.

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• How much carbon can we sequester?

• In its 2007 Carbon Sequestration Atlas, the National Energy Technology Laboratory reported that North America has enough storage capacity at our current rate of production for more than 900 years worth of carbon dioxide. This storage capacity is located deep underground across the continent in varying types of geological formations – including unmineable coal seams and oil and gas reservoirs.

  To break it down, the U.S. and Canada are the source of 3.8 billion tons of CO2 each year, but we have storage space for 3.5 trillion tons. Divide that out and we have, in effect, a 921-year reservoir of carbon dioxide storage.

  To see the study, visit:
  http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/press/2007/07016-Carbon_Sequestration_Atlas_Publish.html

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• With more power plants being built, is our environmental quality getting worse?

• Actually, just the opposite is true. Air quality today is better than it has been in a generation, partly because we’ve invested in technologies for cleaner power plants. As a result, the process of using coal to generate electricity is now 77 percent cleaner in terms of emissions currently regulated under existing Clean Air Act programs per unit of energy produced.

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• How does coal help our economy?

• A study conducted by Pennsylvania State University looked at the value of coal to a state’s economy. Researchers looked at direct jobs associated with coal and other derivative jobs that came about because of access to low-cost energy. According to Economy.com’s 2008 North American Business Cost Review, energy costs are second only to labor costs in determining the viability of a business in a given location.

  So that’s why you see states like Kentucky with traditional low-cost energy doing very well at attracting manufacturing jobs. Georgia doesn’t have many coal industry jobs, but coal provides over 60 percent of the state’s electricity. As a result of the low electricity prices that coal provides, Georgia sees a significant economic impact. Other states like California and several in New England that have among the highest costs of electricity have lost industry.

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• Why is it a bad idea to halt construction of new coal-fired power plants until carbon capture and sequestration is perfected?

• The only way that you can develop technology is if there’s a need for it, and if we’re not building coal plants here in the United States, where’s the drive to develop clean carbon capture technology?

  We already know that we can take clean plants and make them even cleaner over time – and that includes the capture and storage of CO2.

  Our members know that CO2 is going to become regulated in this country and are planning for that with technology investments right now. This will allow coal to remain a fuel for America’s future.

  Part of these investments can be seen in new power plants currently under development. The structure and engineering of these facilities will allow them to be retrofitted with the latest CCS technologies when they become available.

  Placing a moratorium on the building of new plants won’t stop the use of coal to generate electricity – we’ll just be using older, less technologically advanced plants to do it. Even without CCS technology, power plants being developed today are far more efficient and emit far fewer pollutants than the older facilities they are to replace.

  Finally, our ever-increasing electricity demand dictates that we must start the process of building new plants now. Because coal is domestically abundant and provides almost half of the electricity we use today, replacing it with a higher-cost fuel would raise energy prices for many Americans.

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• What role do China and India play in the climate change debate?

• Huge segments of the population in the developing world live without the benefits of electricity now. In the effort to improve quality of life for its citizens, China will be using its huge indigenous reserves of coal. Unless a country like the United States develops clean coal technologies and makes it possible for developing countries to use them, other efforts here in the U.S. will continue to be dwarfed on the international level.

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• Does ACCCE support a mandatory federal plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

• Yes, provided we simultaneously work to protect energy security and keep energy costs affordable for consumers. Striking this balance will require hard work, but it can be done.

  We see climate change as a global issue requiring leadership by the United States and action by all nations in a spirit of shared responsibility to devise and carry out practical, cost-effective measures by government, business and citizens to slow, stop and then reverse the growth of manmade greenhouse gas emissions. We know that coal has a big role to play in the future, even with the likelihood of future carbon regulations.

  That is why investing in advanced clean coal technologies for the capture and storage of CO2 is so important, and we call upon groups that might not have supported coal R&D in the past to reconsider their position on that point.

  For more information, take a look at our 12 legislative climate change principles for federal carbon management legislation.

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• What’s your position on the Clean Air Act’s New Source Review (NSR)?

• Current regulations put electricity generators in a tough position. Many of them want to make modifications to increase operational efficiency, but under the current NSR rule, generators must achieve the same emissions reductions on their current plants as is required of newly constructed plants. Thus, it becomes easier for generators to take no action against reducing emissions. And we believe that some progress in this area is better than none at all, which is why changes to the NSR provisions would actually promote more near-term environmental improvements than the current standard.

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• What are miners doing to prevent disasters such as the Crandall Mine accident in Utah?

• Even one fatality is one too many. But it’s important to remember that statistics prove the fact that today’s coal mining sector is a safe industry for its workers. CEOs, management officials and shareholders understand that a safe operation is a profitable operation. So the idea that a company is going to put profit before safety is a dog that doesn’t hunt.

  Because of technology, we have made it possible to produce more coal and reduce workers’ exposures to hazards. And the development of new technologies will continue to make the industry safer.

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• Why should the government increase investments in clean coal technology?

• With the right investments in technology, we can continue to pursue even lower emissions profiles for coal-based power plants (including the capture and storage of CO2) and keep energy costs affordable for the American consumer.

  But there are always risks involved in bringing new technologies to the marketplace. In many cases, we’re talking about first-of-their-kind, first-of-their-scale technologies. By having the federal government share the financial responsibilities with companies that are funding these technology demonstrations, we’re insulating consumers from bearing 100 percent of the risk of those technology advancements.

  In the 1980s, Congress invested in what was called the Clean Coal Technology Demonstration program. The federal government invested $5 billion and private industry invested nearly $7 billion. This technology partnership led to important clean coal technology: scrubbers, selective catalytic converters, low-NOx burners and integrated gasification combined cycle units.

  As a result of these new technologies, we’ve made unprecedented progress in reducing pollution, increased the use of domestic energy resources to meet growing energy demand and kept energy costs affordable for the consumer.

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• Clean coal technology is expensive and would make our energy bills go up, right?

• Actually, a Roadmap put together in 2005 by the U.S. Energy Department found that generating electricity in 2025 using carbon-capture technology will be equal to today’s cost of new power generation without carbon capture. Here’s more information about the roadmap: http://www.coal.org/roadmap/index.asp.

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• Do all environmental groups oppose coal use?

• Environmental groups’ stances on coal-generated electricity run the gamut from zero-tolerance for coal use to full support of clean coal technology. Unfortunately, those groups that advocate for zero coal use often fail to supply a viable solution on where we’ll find a source to make up for the electricity coal produces – since it currently supplies almost 50 percent of our power.

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• How can I stay informed on your actions in my state?

• Click here to stay informed and receive updates on America’s energy future from Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, our grassroots arm that has over 185,000 members across the country.

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• Now that the FutureGen plant has been put on hold, is clean coal technology up in the air?

• Not at all.

  Clean coal technology refers not to any one project but to an entire suite of advanced technologies. For example, there are more than 300 research projects around the country where several billion dollars are being devoted to clean coal technology, each one breaking new ground and helping pave the way for an energy independent future.

  The U.S. Department of Energy recently announced that it plans to fund the addition of carbon controls for integrated gasification combined cycle power plants being planned. In addition, the agency will begin concentrating on several new carbon capture and sequestration projects.

  As for FutureGen itself … despite what you may have heard or read, the FutureGen project has not been cancelled. Even though former President Bush decided not to include FutureGen in his last budget proposal, Congress has the final say on funding. The discussion on FutureGen has simply moved to Capitol Hill. In the meantime, both citizens and legislators continue to work towards the original plan of building a near-zero emissions, commercial-scale, coal-generated power plant in Mattoon, Ill.

  Remember — the benefits of investing in clean coal technologies far outweigh the costs.

  Coal will remain the backbone of the U.S. electricity system for decades if not centuries, and incorporating carbon capture and sequestration is essential to our future.

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• Where can I see your latest ads?

• Click here to go to our ad archive.

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• Where can I sell the coal that lies beneath my property?

• Here at ACCCE, we work hard to advance the deployment of clean coal technologies… but we are not a resource for mining and property rights issues.

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• How can I heat my home using coal?

• We get that question from folks all over the country who endure long and cold winters. Unfortunately, our knowledge of local coal suppliers and distributors isn’t great enough for us to give recommendations. ACCCE is a partnership of the industries involved in producing electricity from coal. This includes large-scale generating facilities, not residential home heating systems.

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