Obama Pitches for Clean Coal Technology

 
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Richard S.
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Post by Richard S. » Mon. Mar. 03, 2008 8:00 am

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blo ... rking.html
With coalfields nearby, Obama noted that he comes from a coal state and repeated his pitch for clean-coal technology and made clear he believes coal will continue to be a vital part of the nation's energy supply.

"Clean-coal technology should be part of that mix," he said. "We are the Saudi Arabia of coal."

Obama maintained that the United States could profit from developing clean-coal technology and then licensing the techniques to other nations like China and India. "This could actually end up being an export," he said.
Interesting to say the least. :D


 
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Post by spc » Mon. Mar. 03, 2008 9:25 am

It's already being done. Unless your surprised he even mentioned coal as an energy source. What will the tree huggers do. :o
http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/powersystem ... index.html

 
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Post by Richard S. » Mon. Mar. 03, 2008 9:41 am

That program was canceled a month or two ago. They instead are going to invest in low emission technology in existing or soon to be built plants.
The U.S. government—and major U.S. banks—seem to have lost their appetite for coal. After spending five years and approximately $50 million on preliminary studies as well as selecting a proposed site in Mattoon, Ill., the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has scuttled plans to build the so-called FutureGen power plant. The facility would have captured the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) that is emitted when coal is burned for electricity generation. Instead, the DOE hopes to help industry add carbon-capture-and-storage capability to advanced coal plants already in the works.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=clean-coal-po ... conomy-too

Edit: Ooops, I thought it was the link to the future plant, anyhow it was canceled.

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As far as Obama, just mentioning it because its news. :) You know with this election thingy coming up. :P

 
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Post by spc » Mon. Mar. 03, 2008 10:04 am

Seems like they are restructuring not canceling. Unless thats government code word.
http://www.fossil.energy.gov/news/techlines/2008/ ... tureG.html

 
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Post by Richard S. » Mon. Mar. 03, 2008 11:00 am

The plant itself is canceled, the are restructuring the program.

 
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Post by Devil505 » Mon. Mar. 03, 2008 12:39 pm

Wouldn't that be great for all us coal burners if they could figure out how to make an additive that would allow coal to burn cleaner. Then we could all get tax incentives & ease our addiction for Oil. Problem is.........The Bush family is an oil family, not coal. Other than paying the occassional & obligatory lip service to alternative fuel sources, they want to keep us hooked on their oil.

 
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Post by spc » Mon. Mar. 03, 2008 2:04 pm

I can see where this is going. Get ready to move this to the "General & Off Topic Posts". You want clean energy, build more Nuclear power plants like the beloved French.


 
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Post by Richard S. » Mon. Mar. 03, 2008 7:16 pm

Devil5052 wrote:Wouldn't that be great for all us coal burners if they could figure out how to make an additive that would allow coal to burn cleaner.
Actually NO, because some company will patent the technology then get the government to mandate it and they'll sit back collecting enormous profits for little investment. One of the reasons coal is so cheap is overall there is relatively little processing involved. You dig it out of the ground, process it into manageable sizes then burn it.
spc wrote:You want clean energy, build more Nuclear power plants like the beloved French.
Actually I can agree with that, one accident that could be labeled major in how many years of Nuclear technology? If TMI never happened Nuclear might very well be our major source of energy now. Any new plants coming online will be that much better.

 
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Post by Devil505 » Mon. Mar. 03, 2008 9:04 pm

spc wrote:I can see where this is going. Get ready to move this to the "General & Off Topic Posts". You want clean energy, build more Nuclear power plants like the beloved French.
Agreed! (cant wait to be the first kid on my block with his own little Harman TLC-2010 NFS.............Nuclear Fuel Stove)

 
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Post by Yanche » Mon. Mar. 03, 2008 10:43 pm

Actually it would make engineering sense to use the spent fuel rods at existing Nuclear power plants as a heat source for district hydronic heating. The spent fuel rods still produce heat but not enough to make steam. Using them safely is an engineering problem that could be solved however the political will to suggest it will never happen. Instead we will someday at great cost warm the long delayed Yucca Mountain site.

 
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Post by stockingfull » Tue. Mar. 04, 2008 5:04 pm

I've been saying for 25 yrs that we ought to be generating electricity with coal and nukes, not oil and gas, which ought to be reserved for things mobile.

OK, I didn't anticipate the global warming scenario, but until there's agreement on how to deal with greenhouse gases, I'm for the national security justification for using coal and nukes to push down "petro-dependence."

 
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Post by traderfjp » Wed. Mar. 05, 2008 7:14 am

Obama states we are the Saudis of Coal. We had a wake up call in the 70's and nothing changed. We can't be that stupid? Can we?

 
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Post by Richard S. » Wed. Mar. 05, 2008 7:36 am

traderfjp wrote:Obama states we are the Saudis of Coal.
On that he is correct, Proven U.S. Reserves are somewhere in the neigborhood of 25%+ of the worldwide total. China and Russia combined make up another 25%+, the rest is dispersed to other countries.

 
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Post by NorthernNewYork » Wed. Mar. 05, 2008 7:15 pm

traderfjp wrote:Obama states we are the Saudis of Coal. We had a wake up call in the 70's and nothing changed.
Not only did we not learn the lessons, we went the other way using whatever efficiency improvements to improve horsepower on vehicles instead of MPG. Everyone loved their powerful Suv's until fuel hit $3 a gallon. Brazil is an example of a country that learned from the 70's oil crisis. Their solution wouldn't fit our needs in this country, but at least they did something. We should have at least been using more diesel technology in passenger cars, that would improve MPG by 30%. Ethanol is only going to jump our food prices. I think Greenspan was right....more Nuclear power plants with electric vehicles seems to be logical large scale solution for us.

 
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Post by ktm rider » Wed. Mar. 05, 2008 7:46 pm

Richard S. wrote:http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blo ... rking.html
With coalfields nearby, Obama noted that he comes from a coal state.
Interesting to say the least. :D
I didn't know Hawaii was a coal state. but I could be wrong............


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