Clean Coal? Myth or Reality.

 Is clean coal a myth or reality?

There have been quite a few conversations involving the term "clean coal". Many questions have been developed from this statement and I have an argument about whether there is such a thing as clean coal or not. There is no such thing as clean coal, it is impossible. That term has been used out of context for years and has been very confusing to many people. Clean coal is most definitely a myth.  According to the New York Times, "Confusingly, administration officials have sometimes used "clean coal" to refer to highly efficient coal plants that do not use carbon capture but emit somewhat less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than older coal plants"(Plumer, 2017). This term has developed a trail of many lies about coal plants. Just because some coal emits less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, does not mean that it is completely clean.

With that being said, coal is never completely clean. Coal can be washed, but there will never be a powerful cleaning solution that can clean coal. You would think that cleaning coal could "wash away all of the pollutants", which is, in fact, far from the truth. Washing it can still make the majority of the pollutants stick. It does not completely dissolve once it is washed, which is a reason why clean coal is a big myth. Mining coal has always been a high polluting action, and it is impossible for coal to not emit some level of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Throughout the New York Times article, there were explanations about how there is no way for coal to be cleaned completely. "They also note that companies have little incentive to install the necessary scrubbers and pipelines in the absence of stricter climate regulations or a price of carbon" (Plumer, 2017). Clearly, it is difficult for anyone in the United States to afford or find a magical machine that could "clean coal". Even using the scrubbers and pipelines, coal would still be dirty in some way. Between coal emitting carbon dioxide and many other pollutants, there is not a possible way for any of that to be scrubbed off. Although, there are ways to produce less pollution, which do not involve the use of coal as a power plant. If this country would use natural gas, nuclear, wind or solar plants, then that would decrease the amount of pollution in the air. Plumer expresses that, "Even a coal power plant that emits fewer pollutants is still a far dirtier way to produce electricity than a natural gas, nuclear, wind or solar plant" (Plumer, 2017). This proves that even though some coal power plants could emit less carbon dioxide and pollution, we should switch to using a natural power plant for electricity.

The pollution that is created from coal power plants has killed too many people throughout the United States. That is why the suggestion was made to use a different type of plant to produce electricity. I believe that if we stick with using a natural power plant rather than a coal power plant, we will see significant reduction of not only pollution, but also deaths across the country. We need to put a stop to using coal as the power source for electricity completely. Coal has never and will never be clean. There is too much pollution and carbon dioxide emitted into the air, which is taking the lives of many individuals. If there is no change on using coal in this practice, then the United States will continue to be polluted and we will lose many more lives from pollution, which can cause many diseases such as cancer and lung disease. 

References

Plumer, B. (2017, August 23). What 'clean coal' is - and isn't. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/23/climate/what-clean-coal-is-and-isnt.html