• Burning coal is a leading source of global warming pollution

• Burning coal is the dirtiest way we produce electricity

• There are no homes in America powered by clean coal

• CO2 emissions from U.S. coal-based electricity are greater than emissions from all the cars and trucks in America

• The coal industry is spending millions advertising clean coal, but not a single clean coal power plant exists in the U.S. today.

• There are roughly 600 coal plants producing electricity in the U.S.  Not one of them captures and stores its global warming pollution.

• There is not a single large-scale demonstration clean coal plant in the U.S.

• Virtually all the new coal plants that have been proposed will… Release 100 percent of the CO2 they produce into the atmosphere

• Carbon storage has not yet been demonstrated with commercial scale coal power

• An investment in wind power produces almost three times as many jobs as the same investment in coal power.

• Without cap-and-trade policy, Shell’s oil’s CEO says “CO2 capture & storage will remain a daydream.”

WHAT IS “CLEAN” COAL?

For a coal power plant to be clean, in addition to addressing local environmental concerns, its CO₂ emissions must be captured and safely stored so that they cannot enter the atmosphere. Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is the technical term for preventing global warming pollution from coal power plants. Technology assessments indicate CCS can prevent 80% to nearly 100% of a coal power plant’s CO₂ from entering the atmosphere. CCS can include pre–combustion or post–combustion capture. CO₂ injected for enhanced oil recovery can be considered a storage solution as long as the CO₂ is permanently retained in the oil field.

IF COAL CAPTURES AND STORES ITS CO₂, DOES THAT MAKE IT “CLEAN”?

No—not unless other environmental practices, standards and rules are adopted as well. Coal mining practices like mountain top removal permanently destroy landscapes and pollute waterways. Burning coal to produce electricity can release over 100 pollutants into the atmosphere.⁴ Without adequate pollution controls, many plants today still emit dangerous levels of mercury (which enters our food supply and causes birth defects), nitrogen oxides (which contribute to smog and asthma), and fine particulate matter (which causes heart and lung disease) that prematurely kills thousands of people every year. Coal cannot be clean without capturing and storing its global warming pollution but CCS by itself is not sufficient—comprehensive environmental controls must be applied to all coal power plants.