On Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:39:53 -0500, Vic Smith
wrote:

Sticky little facts again rear up. Obama has been and still is behind
clean coal. Look up FutureGen and the resume of the Steven Chu.
Bush killed the clean coal project, and Obama and Chu restarted it
with $1 billion a month or so ago.

I can only say that Obama has stated, outright, that he will bankrupt
coal fired generators.

With respect to Steven Chu, this is the same guy who didn't know that
as head of the Department of Energy, he was in charge of oil/gas
drilling policy. I wouldn't put a lot in his basket.

Then there's this from the Futuregen site.

"What kind of coal will FutureGen use?

FutureGen has been designed to operate at its best using either of two
primary types of coal: bituminous (e.g. Ill#6, Pit#8) and
subbituminous (e.g. Powder River Basin). However, the plant is being
designed to operate on other coals such as lignite. The Alliance plans
to test a wide variety of coals during its operation, to better
understand how these coals perform in near-zero emission gasification
operations."

Let's start with Powder River Basin coal. That type of coal is largely
strip mined with a 1 to 1 recovery rate - meaning that there isn't a
lot of material to back-fill as is required in other strip mining
opertions - meaning that the land cannot be recovered.

Add to this to your "fact" - this is a culturally sensitive are for
First Americans and opening more than the already 15 mines in the area
will be fought on several levels from enviromental to cultural. Winona
LaDuke is heading up a local environmental and cultural challenge to
opening up any more mines and the Sierra Club, along with the Greens,
are funded and ready for a fight.

With respect to ILL#6 and Pit#8, well guess what. Coal dust from these
types of coal create a condition called oxidative stress.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxidative_stress

Do you think that environmental groups are going to allow high volume
mining for gasification plants? Or that these types of coal also
affect pro-inflammatory genes that are not completely understood yet?