Norm Coleman still pushes coal gasification

Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) still touts coal gasification and attempts to play it off as environmentally friendly. It's a lie. Coal gasification will significantly add to the amount of CO₂ emitted into our atmosphere. Minnesota needs jobs and Norm will never be a champion for making Minnesota a leader in an evolving green economy.

Minnesota Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman will testify today at a Senate committee hearing where his bill dealing with carbon capture, transportation and sequestration will be discussed. The bill has bipartisan co-sponsors.

Coleman, in a telephone interview from the nation's Capitol Wednesday afternoon, said he is strongly supportive of clean-coal projects as part of an overall energy policy to make the country less energy dependent on Mideast oil. And he said one of those projects is the proposed Excelsior Energy coal gasification venture for the Iron Range.

The $2 billion Excelsior Energy project proposes at least three units across the Range, with the first one slated for the Bovey/Taconite area. Each one would create 1 million man hours of construction work and at least 100 permanent jobs. Excelsior CEO Tom Micheletti has said he hopes for construction on the first unit to begin in 2009.

"Absolutely I am still a supporter of the Excelsior project. I fought hard to secure federal tax credits for the project and am very proud of that. It is a vital part of energy policy.

"We have at least a 250-year supply of coal and projects like this can help provide low-cost energy and reduce the threat to our national security. And it can be done in an environmentally-friendly way," Coleman said.
(Mesabi Daily News Online)

Why isn't Norm talking about bringing wind turbine plants into Minnesota? What about green technology jobs? Norm won't talk about it because he's bought and paid for by Big Oil, Big Coal and the Utilities.

Coleman pointed out in a news release that cutting CO2 emissions into the atmosphere is a three-stage process:

1. Capture the carbon dioxide at the point it is created.
2. Transport it to a point of storage.
3. Sequester and store it in an appropriate geologic formation.

Coleman said progress has been made in the first and third steps, but now the transportation of such emissions must be addressed.
(Mesabi Daily News Online)

Let's bring a little reality to the Norm-speak^TM. They would have to haul the coal in from out west or out east. There's a tremendous amount of energy wasted to move it 1,000+ miles. Because they are going to try and make a profit for their investors, what are the chances that they are going to cut corners in capturing the
CO₂ emissions? If you guessed 100%, you guessed right. Then they'd need to haul the toxic slag that is created away. In addition, they'll have to find a place to haul it. Finally, they'll need to spend another tremendous amount of energy to stuff the toxic slag deep in the ground.

If you've been reading my posts about peak oil, this sounds to me like we'd use a huge amount of oil in this process. Some answer to our looming environmental crises. Norm cannot think beyond coal and oil. We need alternative energy solutions and Norm hasn't got a clue.