Increase Clean Coal Use

The United States has approximately 900 gigatons of coal reserves, which represents over 25% of all known coal reserves in the world.  Our abundant coal supply contains the equivalent energy capacity of several trillion barrels of oil, enough to supply all of our energy needs for over 100 years.  We currently produce about 1.1 billion short tons of coal each year, almost all of which is used, in one form or another, for fueling power plant operations and we currently generate about half of our electricity using coal.

Coal can be burned directly as a fuel for producing heat or it can be processed into a number of different fuels and other products via coal gasification and coal liquefaction techniques.  Coal gasification can be used to convert coal into syngas and coal liquefaction can be used to produce syngas and synthetic liquid oils and fuels.

Coal has largely fallen out of favor as a source of energy, mainly due to concerns about the environmental and health effects of sulfuric acid, greenhouse gases, and other emissions.  Several technological advances have occurred in the last few years that now allow coal use to be as efficient as and comparable in emissions to using natural gas.  These advances have come from several government sponsored or supported R&D programs and they allow the pollutants and carbon dioxide generated during combustion and processing to be easily captured and used for other purposes or sequestered as appropriate.

Environmentally responsible exploitation of America's coal resources is absolutely necessary for energy independence and any policies, regulations, or legislation that impede the use of clean coal must be changed.

Our objectives are to significantly increase the use of clean coal technology for producing electricity and to produce enough syngas, synthetic liquid fuels, and other products normally derived from petroleum or natural gas to replace at least 10 - 20% of their use within the next 10 - 12 years.  In order to accomplish this, the following actions are required:

Build permitted coal power plants
There are currently 47 new coal plants that have been permitted and that are nearing or under construction.  Regulatory uncertainty regarding future greenhouse gas emissions is affecting decisions on proceeding with construction, resulting in 59 previously announced plants being canceled, abandoned, or put on hold last year. The majority of the plants that are still advancing through the process are being challenged in court on environmental grounds.  While many of the already permitted plants are not the latest clean coal technology, they still meet current environmental regulations regarding emissions and they should be allowed to proceed to operation.  Carbon capture can be retrofitted into them if required by new regulations in the future.

Encourage IGCC power plants
Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle (IGCC) power plants have many advantages over conventional coal-fired power plants for the purpose of achieving energy independence.  They use advanced technology to efficiently produce electricity, hydrogen, and various other useful products while at the same time capturing nearly all of the air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions normally associated with the use of coal.  These advantages are offset by higher initial costs for construction.  There are currently 3 IGCC plants under construction and 29 more have been announced or proposed.  The construction of all 32 should be strongly encouraged with appropriate incentives such as accelerated depreciation schedules and loan guarantees.  Other incentives may be appropriate to help mitigate the higher construction cost and encourage the construction of additional IGCC plants.

Encourage clean coal refineries
Clean coal refineries use gasification and liquefaction techniques to extract syngas, synthetic liquids, and other chemicals that are then used to create various petroleum or natural gas equivalent products according to market demands.  Significant refinery capacity will be needed in order to produce the large quantities of hydrogen, synthetic natural gas, methanol, butanol, and other products necessary to meet our goals.  The ban on federal government purchases of liquid fuels derived from coal, oil shale, or tar sands must be repealed and the construction of industrial scale refineries should be strongly encouraged with incentives such as agreements to guarantee the purchase of minimum quantities at specific prices and accelerated depreciation.

Encourage co-generation at existing plants
Many existing plants, whether using coal or other fuels, generate significant quantities of waste heat that could be used to produce additional electricity or steam.  Adding co-generation capability at any power plant or industrial process where waste heat can be effectively captured is a fast and relatively inexpensive way to significantly increase total energy generating capacity without an increase in combustion emissions.  Combined cycle and co-generation using waste heat should be strongly encouraged anywhere it can be effectively used with appropriate incentives.

Encourage Underground Coal Gasification
Techniques to perform the coal to syngas conversion underground, instead of in a refinery, eliminate the need to mine the coal and provides a ready location to sequester carbon dioxide after it has been captured.  In addition, in situ gasification can be applied to coal seams that would not otherwise be commercially viable to extract.  It has been estimated that this technique could produce liquid fuels competitively with crude oil prices at around $20/barrel. Several countries are already using this process to produce synthetic fuels and a demonstration project is currently being conducted in the United States.  We should use incentives, such as agreements to guarantee the purchase of minimum quantities at specific prices, to encourage commercial scale use of underground gasification where it is appropriate.

Expedite permitting of clean coal power plants and refineries
The permitting process for anything to do with coal has become fraught with delays and a high risk of outright rejection.  In some cases it is because state regulators are not familiar with clean coal technology and in other cases it is just that people hear the words "coal plant" and immediately oppose it because of outdated concerns regarding hazards to health and the environment.  Clean coal gasification and liquefaction facilities that are built based on standardized designs, plans, and blueprints should have a very short permitting process since all of their emissions are known in advance to be well below any and all current and proposed regulations.  Strict deadlines should be set for approval/denial from each agency or level of approval required.  Failure to meet the deadline should be treated as automatic approval.  Combined construction and operating licenses should be issued.

Restrict challenges to clean coal power plants and refineries
Once permits have been issued, court system challenges by opponents must be limited in scope to legitimate issues, have timely filing requirements, and receive expedited access to the court system.