Klein touted the benefits of using what's called "clean coal" during a televised address on Tuesday night, when he also boasted about the province's utilization of the energy source.
"We already use clean coal to meet more than half of our electricity needs," said Klein...
Mary Griffiths, an environmental policy analyst with the Pembina Institute, says the premier's comments are confusing.
"I don't know what is being referred to by clean coal. It's possible we could do something in the future which could capture the emissions, but not at the present time, to my knowledge, is there anything in Alberta that is capturing emissions from coal-fired power plants."
"All our coal-fired plants at the moment in Alberta are conventional coal-fired plants which emit from the stack sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, mercury and other heavy metals, and greenhouse gases."
Too much exposure to sour gas Ralph? If Klein really believes his rhetoric, it makes his anti-Kyoto stance all the more curious. Given that 20% of Canada's greenhouse emissions stem from coal, "clean" coal would certainly allow Canada to meet its Kyoto commitments.
2 comments:
I actually think that Klein was talking about coal gasification. It is cleaner that you can get a purer fuel so you won't have the heavy metal or sulphurous compounds in the emissions. Yet you still produce the CO2 that you would with any hydrocarbon combustion, so it would be a mistake to consider it a truly "green" alternative to present fuels.
That said, it'll make people money if natural gas prices continue to go up, so that's probably why Ralph wants to get into it.
-Socialist Swine
Problem is Klein was arguing the present tense, not future alternatives.
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