Dirty coal, clean future

That is the title of a calm and level-headed essay from James Fallows on how coal will dominate for quite a few more decades.  But then when have his essays not been calm and level-headed, right?  Fallows notes the horribly low energy efficiency of coal-fired processes even three centuries after James Watt's pioneering use of steam that is pretty much the symbol of the Industrial Revolution.  But, coal is here and we better deal with it because CO2 keeps piling up above.

Why focus on coal on our way to cleaning up the air?

“I know this is a theological issue for some people,” Julio Friedmann of Lawrence Livermore said. “Solar and wind power are going to be important, but it is really hard to get them beyond 10 percent of total power supply.” He pointed out the huge engineering achievement it has taken to raise the efficiency of solar photovoltaic cells from about 25 percent to about 30 percent; whereas “to make them useful, you would need improvements of two- or threefold in cost,” say from about 18 cents per kilowatt-hour to 6 cents. He recited a skeptic’s line used about the Carter administration’s clean-energy programs—“You’re not going to run a steel plant with solar panels”—and then made a point that summarized the outlook of those who have decided they can best wage the climate fight by working on dirty, destructive coal.
“It is very hard to go around the world and think you can make any difference in carbon-loading the atmosphere without some plan for how people can continue to use coal,” Friedmann said. “It is by far the most prevalent and efficient way to generate electricity. People are going to use it. There is no story of climate progress without a story for coal. In particular, U.S.-China progress on coal.”

living in Oregon means we are lucky to enjoy hydroelectric power (it has a different set of environmental impacts) and we can even forget coal fired plants.  It was a surprise to hear on the news the other day about plans to close down the only coal-fired power plant.  Which left me wondering where it was.  One student in my class knew about this--she grew up in a town that was practically across from this plant.  The things I learn from students everyday, and they have no idea about the free education I am getting from them.  One other student wondered where all those coal fired plants are in the US.  Google gave me the following graphic:

Notice that one dot practically on the Oregon/Washington border?  Apparently that could be closed down as early as 2020.