Can Coal Be Green?

MONTANA, Nov 15 (Neo Natura) - The Governor of Montana is calling for vast tracks of land to be strip-mined for coal as the only way of reducing America's dependence on foreign oil.

As high petrol prices, the shutdown of BP's Prudhoe Bay oilfield, and conflict in the Middle East dominate the headlines, Brian Schweitzer is the latest politician to risk the wrath of the environmental lobby by pressing for greater use of coal.

The black rock currently accounts for more than half of America's electricity production and the industry has been quietly making a resurgence. With oil prices stubbornly above $70 a barrel, coal is again an economically viable resource.

Mines numbered more than 9,000 in 1923, a figure that dwindled to just 1,300 two years ago, but is climbing once again. The US is the Saudi Arabia of coal with more than 25pc of the world's recoverable reserves - about 270bn tons or enough to provide all the energy demands in the US for at least 200 years at current rates.

New technology is making that coal easier and cleaner to process. The US National Mining Association is particularly excited about two developments that could make coal as popular as it was when it drove the furnaces of the Industrial Revolution.

Last month, four sites were shortlisted as the potential home of the FutureGen project, a government-sponsored plan that hopes to create the ultimate energy source of "clean coal". The putative plant will create zero carbon dioxide emissions and turn every bit of energy and emissions into some useful byproduct.

Operators are confident that technology will soon create the ability to turn coal into an easily transportable liquid that could then be transformed into petrol and jet fuel. The NMA is already talking to heavy jet fuel users such as the airlines and the US military. Although the start-up costs are massive - $1bn to build a coal-to-liquid plant - the NMA says the cost of production is cheaper than using oil once a barrel of crude rises above $45 a barrel.

But doubters see strip-mining, where acres of land are transformed into moonscapes to reach the coal beneath, as detrimental to the environment.

"In effect, America's vast reserve of coal is like a giant anchor slowing down the nation's transition to new sources of energy," said Jeff Goodell in his book Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future.