COAL CARS?

Here’s another terrible idea getting our attention because it makes great politics.

Coal in cars: great fuel or climate foe? A key problem is that liquid from coal emits twice as much carbon as gasoline. Still, Washington likes the idea.
Mark Clayton, March 2, 2007 (The Christian Science Monitor)

- Coal companies want to fuel your car and lately, they're getting a lot of political support…
- Turning coal into gasoline-like fuel has several advantages…use America's vast coal reserves…reduce the nation's thirst for foreign oil…dampen spikes in energy prices.
- Coal-to-liquids (CTL) fuels could end up emitting nearly double the carbon dioxide that the equivalent amount of gasoline does, mostly because of the way it's manufactured. The CTL industry says new technology will fix the problem. But because such technology is not yet developed, it's unclear whether CTL fuels would be competitive without state and federal subsidies, even competing against high-priced diesel, jet fuel, or gasoline… analysts say.
- The National Mining Association has ramped up Capitol Hill lobbying, creating a new coalition and website, futurecoalfuels.org. Many in Washington are warming to the idea…

- Supporters of the bill range from Sen. Barack Obama (D) of Illinois to President Bush…
- In coal-rich Illinois, Senator Obama's support is more nuanced. Citing energy-security concerns, his bipartisan legislation would grant tax and other subsidies for development of CTL refineries. He also supports separate global-warming legislation that, if passed, would keep carbon emissions from CTL refineries under control…But Obama's CTL bill does not mandate capture of carbon dioxide.
- That stance is likely to put him at odds with many environmentalists, who argue that a move to CTL will worsen global warming. Manufacturing and burning a gallon of CTL fuel creates nearly double the greenhouse-gas emissions that a gallon of gasoline does…
- At least nine coal-to-liquids facilities are now in the planning stages…If all nine plants were built, they could produce about 3 billion gallons of fuel a year – not enough to meet the president's goal. But if federal tax incentives and state subsidies kick-start the industry, coal-based fuel production could soar to 40 billion gallons a year by 2025 – or about 10 percent of forecast oil demand that year…

- A key question is whether those plants will capture the greenhouse gases they produce and bury them underground. If they don't, the plants will pump millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually…CTL fuel, when burned in an engine, would still send about 8 percent more CO2 skyward than a gallon of gasoline…
- CTL supporters say the industry would produce "clean fuel" that helps the environment by putting out fewer smog-forming nitrous oxides and other chemicals than regular diesel fuel. If 85 percent of CO2 from coal-to-liquid refineries could be captured and stored, CTL diesel fuel would then have about the same emissions as a gallon of regular diesel, they say…
- Such a promise was called into question in a DOE environmental impact filing in December, which reported that a leading CTL development had no near-term plan to capture any of the 2.3 million tons of CO2 it would produce annually…"The price estimates cited by industry proponents assume facilities are uncontrolled for CO2 emissions," write Christine Tezak and K. Whitney Stanco of the Stanford Group…Investors should beware of "the increasing likelihood" that the US could establish emissions controls, so that "any large investment in CTL would need significant subsidies to offset environmental costs…"