State of the Union address: Will Obama back coal?
On the day of the State of the Union address, we hope President Obama heeds the advice of then candidate Obama. It was just a few years ago he stated:
“This is America – we figured out how to put a man on the moon in 10 years. You tell me we can’t find a way to burn coal that we mine right here in the United States of America and make it work.”
A recent story coming from Ohio State University shows that, as it turns out, candidate Obama was on the right track. The Columbus Dispatch reports, “Ohio State University researchers say they have developed a way to create energy using coal while capturing 99 percent of carbon dioxide. The trick, they say, is not burning the fossil fuel, but using a chemical reaction to draw its energy.”
“This, they say, is a huge step toward the promise of “clean coal,” something President Barack Obama has touted as the future of energy production in the United States.”
The project is funded in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, and will be moving south to a larger-scale study at the agency’s U.S National Carbon Capture Center in Wilsonville, Ala.
While commitment to fully implementing 21st Century coal-based electricity seems to have wavered from the current administration, it’s clear that American ingenuity and know-how will continue to produce major developments in clean coal technologies for years to come.
