Protesting Coal

MONTANA, Nov 20 (Neo Natura) - On October 22nd a demonstration occurred outside the University of Montana to protest the proposed construction of 11 new coal plants. The rally took place before NASA's top climate change scientist, James Hansen, took the stage for a speech.

The anti-coal rally was attended by about 70-100 people, many holding protest signs, and featured speakers from Missoula-based environmental groups such as GlobalWarmingSolution.org, members of national groups such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, and local politicians. Their main objection to clean coal? It doesn’t exist, they say.

“There is no such thing as clean coal,” said regional director of the Sierra Club Paul Shively, before he urged audience members to call their congressmen demanding a moratorium on coal.

State Rep. Betsy Hands (D-Missoula) spoke about a recent bill – a bill that would reduce Montana’s carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 – that was voted down in the House along partisan lines (51-49).

The basic premise behind making coal clean, or carbon neutral, is that if coal is converted to synthetic fuel by a certain process known as the Fischer-Tropsch process its polluting impurities are removed. The CO2 that is emitted during processing is caught in a process called carbon sequestration and stored, thus never reaching the atmosphere and not contributing to global warming.

Many of the critics of clean coal say that carbon sequestration technology has not been perfected and that some CO2 will still reach the atmosphere during processing. Many critics also see coal extraction as inherently destructive to the natural environment.

The topic of coal-as-fuel featured prominently in the lecture by top NASA climate scientist James Hansen, which was held following the rally in the packed University Center ballroom.