After a prolonged period of uncertainty brought on by regulators and lawsuits, the coal industry has survived and is on the verge of truly prospering again. Coal is the United States' most abundant domestic energy resource. One quarter of all the world's known coal supplies are found within the United States. Historically it has been the least expensive fossil fuel available in the country. Because of its abundance and low cost, coal now accounts for more than half of the electricity generated in the United States and the nation is likely to use more coal in the future. But because it spews toxins, coal has been long viewed as the scourge of the power industry.

        Given that the United States needs all the electricity it can generate from its most reliable and stable resources, coal can remain one of America's greatest energy strengths. However, these benefits can only be realized when coal can be used in ways which are environmentally responsible and when advanced technology can achieve significantly higher efficiencies than existing commercial power plants, while helping to keep the nation's energy affordable. To ensure that coal-based systems meet these expectations, the Clean Coal Technology (CCT) Program seeks to develop more efficient, cleaner coal-use technologies. This program is expected to improve the existing fleet of power plants as well as delivering new technology for use with the advanced plants of tomorrow.

        When the original Clean Coal Technology Program began in 1986, only a few options existed for reducing the pollutants released from coal – and almost all of them were expensive. The technology for coal-fired power plants was generally limited to the pulverized coal boiler - a large furnace-like unit that burns finely ground coal. The Clean Coal Technology Program is expected to change all that.

        Clean coal technologies are a family of new technological innovations that are environmentally superior to the technologies in common use today. Most are the products of research that has been conducted over the last 20 years or more. Clean coal technologies can be divided into two main new advanced processes:

· Power generation processes like fluidized bed combustion, gasification combined cycle, and staging combustor that can convert coal into fuel forms that can be cleaned before being burned.

· Pollution control devices like low-NOx burners, selective catalytic reduction and advanced scrubbers that remove pollutants, or prevent them from forming while the coal burns, or clean pollutants from flue gases before they exit a plant's smokestack.

        The Clean Coal Technology Program demonstrated alternatives with higher fuel efficiencies and superior environmental performance. But there is a catch. The installation of new and advanced coal-power plants is expected to be very expensive. I read somewhere that the cost of producing one megawatt-hour of electricity from a coal gasification plant is roughly 40 percent higher than a traditional coal plant. It should be also clear that clean coal technology only reduces the amount of emissions that coal gives off when burned to generate electricity. Some critics even claim that the technology will never be adopted because it doesn't lower emissions enough or will only have a market chance if Clean Air regulations are stronger. Clean coal is still dirty! Does this mean that "clean" coal is a myth?

        I particularly don't look favorably at coal, but we got to recognize it is plentiful and will be around the block for a long time. If we follow the entire process of coal utilization from mining, to transportation, to burning, to disposal of the ash, there is no such thing as "clean" coal. However, the Clean Coal Technology Program has shown how it can be possible. Indeed, several technologies demonstrated in the program serve as the starting points for new innovations that could ultimately eliminate the environmental concerns over the use of coal. Thus, the expanded development and deployment of clean coal technologies is a key strategy for coal use. I believe, however, that we shouldn’t be lull into thinking that it is enough to use advanced new coal technologies to reduce emissions only to acceptable environmental limits (in compliance with the regulations) or that the air is cleaner now than it was 20 years ago. If coal is to be used, more support should be given to research to find more feasible ways of burning coal without emitting pollutants.