Constantopolous: Coal sector needs advanced tech

Guest columnist

These days, bipartisan support in Congress for a coal bill of any kind is rare. Which is why the Senate leadership’s support of a measure that would boost incentives for the development of a technology that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions from coal combustion is so noteworthy.

Jim Constantopoulos

The technology is sequestration. This involves capturing the gas produced by burning coal and burying it in deep geological formations, such as saline aquifers.

Carbon capture-and-storage (CCS) can be done in today’s coal plants, but it’s expensive.

Now there is support among key Republicans and Democrats in the Senate for expanded research on CCS technology.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has thrown his full support behind a CCS bill, which is cosponsored by Democratic Sens. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, with backing from Hillary Clinton’s running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

This is the sort of political breakthrough the coal industry badly needs. Despite the histrionics framing the public debate over coal, there have long been hints of a path forward for dealing with coal production and use, both in the U.S. and globally.

While coal has been in retreat in the U.S., it remains indispensable almost everywhere else. It is the economic fuel of choice for new electricity-generating plants, particularly in China and India.

But without CCS technology, most other countries won’t be able to meet targets for reduced carbon emissions. Coal’s long-term future in the U.S., as well as any practical effort to achieve global emissions reduction goals, rests on U.S. leadership in advancing CCS technology.

While environmentalists have fallen over themselves congratulating each other on beating up the U.S. coal industry, they are wearing blinders in regard to global energy trends.

The battle against climate change is never going to be won in U.S. coal fields. China burns more coal than the rest of the world combined. India wants to double its coal production, and even Germany, the poster child of the environmental movement for its efforts to ramp up use of wind and solar power, generates 40 percent of its electricity with coal.

Despite unshakable data that coal is here to stay — and is arguably more important than ever — investment in CCS is lacking.

Logic would have it that environmentalists would be first in line calling for government support of CCS — a technology so critical to addressing rising emissions. Yet, the environmental community has a misplaced belief that any investment in advanced fossil fuel technologies is counterproductive to progress. It’s a solar and wind future for them, or nothing at all.

Of course, that fantasy doesn’t jibe with how we use energy or how we are projected to use energy. Fossil fuels still account for 81 percent of global energy use and, based on the latest projections by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, they will still provide 78 percent of the world’s energy in 2040.

Supporting advanced energy technology should not be an exercise in picking your favorite color. We can support multiple advanced energy technologies, be it CCS, next-generation nuclear power, battery storage or more productive and cost-competitive wind and solar.

What we don’t need from government is overzealous regulation and energy mandates. Instead, smart funding of advanced energy R&D is the ticket.

Jim Constantopoulos is a geology professor at Eastern New Mexico University. Contact him at:

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