Replies to post #714 on The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[DewDiligence]

APD ought to be another beneficiary—see #msg-48435245. Feedback welcome!

[DewDiligence]

Carbon-capture coal project appears to be on last legs:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/business/energy-environment/coal-project-hits-snag-as-a-partner-backs-off.html

Ameren, the Midwestern power company that was to be the host for the project, has told its partners that because of its financial situation, it cannot take part as promised, although it has not told them exactly what it will do. The company had agreed to supply an old oil-fired power plant in Meredosia, Ill., that would be converted to demonstrate the carbon-capture technology on a commercial scale.

…The project’s first incarnation, announced in 2003 by President George W. Bush, envisaged building a plant that would turn coal into a hydrocarbon gas, filter out the carbon dioxide and burn the hydrogen for power. Bids were solicited, and the venture settled on a site in Mattoon, Ill. But the administration shifted course and killed the program in 2008, citing concerns about the costs.

Last year the Obama administration resuscitated the project with $1 billion in Recovery Act money but settled on a different technology: burning coal in oxygen instead of ordinary air to produce nearly pure carbon dioxide as an exhaust gas that would then be piped underground for disposal.

…If the project needed a deadline extension from Congress to hold on to the $1 billion in federal aid, many note, it is not clear that it could get one in this fiscally weak environment. And experts on coal-fired emissions say that without government help, it is unlikely that the private sector will risk the money necessary for a first-of-a-kind engineering project.