Brace yourselves!

[RAM]

A mere hint of what is to come!

Nashville Tennessean April 6, 2008

COAL CAN BE GREEN by Gerry Calhoun, energy consultant

"Coal is the elephant in the dining room-impossible to ignore. Because we depend on coal for 45% of our electricity, we will never be able to replace it entirely. So how can we make coal a 'good neighbor' in the environment?
Carbon (CO2) capture and sequestration is a technique that removes CO2 from flue gas...and buries it deep in geologic formations"

The article goes on to discuss how this is done and where (mostly as a method of secondary hydrocarbon recovery in oil fields presently, not an available opportunity everywhere, meaning transportation will be required. Then, in the very last pargraph (where else?) he sets the hook:

"Consumers deserve to have an estimate of the costs such activities might entail. Initial costs may increse electricity costs as much as 50 PERCENT, though eventually installations will add ONLY (my emphases) about 30 percent. (Whew! Had me worried for a bit there! Only 30 percent. What a relief!). Other than mandating huge conservation efforts or imposing carbon taxes, we have few alternatives to carbon capture and sequestration."

Only the beginning. If you can barely afford your mortgage payments now, add 50% to your heating and cooling bill. That should help.

Bad Bob

[Don Champion]

Maybe Al would have them convert the CO2 to dry ice to combat global warming?

[RAM]

Cool idea Don. We can get the energy needed to make the dry ice from coal burning steam plants. They send the captured CO2 to the dry ice factory. Then they ship the dry ice to Greenland and Antactica to combat global warming. A true symbiotic relationship! Transportation cost is covered by using Obama's leftover campaign donations. Man, I wish I had thought of that! I think I will nominate you for the Nobel next year. Maybe not the Peace Prize, but some sort of prize.

Reminds me of the guy who invented a diesel breeder reactor. Made more diesel fuel than it used. The only problem was trucks had to stop every 200 miles and offload excess diesel fuel. I heard that the Big Oil lobby squelched that idea. Or was it Little Oil? Or was it OPEC? Oh, well.

Bad Bob