The 3Es

Energy Security
Economic Growth
Environmental Solutions

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Fast Fact:
The United States alone has enough storage for hundreds of years of carbon dioxide emissions from electric utilities.

Environmental Solutions

21st Century Technologies Are Virtually Eliminating Emissions from Coal

Energy, the economy and the environment – the 3Es – are the most crucial issues of our time.  Through greater use of clean coal, nations can secure their energy supplies, create jobs and grow the economy while advancing climate goals.

In the United States, clean coal technologies have enabled coal used for electricity to triple since 1970 while the Gross Domestic Product has doubled.  Even with increased economic activity, emissions have been reduced more than 40 percent thanks to tens of billions of dollars of investments in clean coal technologies. Continued advancements in technologies will lead to further improvement to achieve the ultimate goal of near-zero emissions.

There are a series of logical steps for advancing clean technologies, which include:     

1. Building advanced supercritical combustion plants with improved efficiencies to help the environment and stabilize our baseload electric reliability for the next 15 years.  These plants typically have carbon dioxide emissions that are 15 percent below the existing fleet based on the efficiences of design.
2. Demonstrating integrated gasification combined cycle technology and carbon capture and storage.   
3. Retrofitting existing coal-based plants with carbon capture and storage technology to realize the full potential of coal.
   
   

Greater use of clean coal technology with carbon capture and storage is the right approach and a popular approach that is supported by the vast majority of Americans, who believe coal is our 'fuel of the future.'  More than 70 percent of Americans support using coal for electricity, more than 80 percent of Americans believe we need to rely more on coal to meet our growing energy needs, and more than 85 percent of Americans believe the federal government should help.  These findings are based on an October 2008 national survey conducted by Washington-D.C. based RT Strategies.