Rendered image approximation of completed FutureGen facility

News broke today that the Obama administration restored funding to the controversial government research project FutureGen. Funding had been cut by President Bush in an unusual (though inadvertent) act of environmental sanity.

For those of you not in the loop, FutureGen was supposed to be the Government’s demonstration project to research and prove the viability of Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CSS). CCS is a magical and mystical technique (is it a spell? a potion? no-one really knows) to capture carbon dioxide spewed by coal burning power plants, liquify it, and then bury it underground. Proponents of this fantastic technology claim that it would solve a whole slew of problems by dealing with the climate crisis while protecting the coal industry’s profits, ensuring the continuation of their ability to buy coal state politicians and maintaining King Coal’s feudal-like grip on Appalachia and other coal-mining regions.

This was the whole premise of Carbon Capture and Sequestration. Unfortunately, things aren’t as rosey as its proponents claim. Cost estimates for FutureGen are steadily on the rise and most studies doubt the technology’s ability to produce electricity at a competitive price.  In what should have been a final nail on the CCS coffin, the country of Norway which is well known for pioneering the technology, is increasingly worried that sequestered gasses just aren’t staying underground. All evidence suggests that taking greenhouse gasses, liquifing them and sticking them underground hoping that they won’t leak is like dealing with an approaching asteroid by having every human being on the planet blow air at it.

Unfortunately, coal industry astroturfing and copious lobbying expenses managed to convince most politicians that a magical world powered by ‘clean coal’ is possible and right around the corner, prompting the Obama administration to restore copious amounts of funding to FutureGen. This is what Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois had to say:

“In my time in Congress, I can’t recall a project that has greater scientific and practical significance than FutureGen, not to mention the enormous economic benefit it will have in Illinois”

Not one? Possibly that’s because there just haven’t been any programs of similar proportions for the real solutions to the climate crisis. All that money would go very far in helping to develop breakthroughs in cheaper and more realistic technologies such as enhanced geothermal (which could be deployed anywhere, uses similar technology to oil drilling and would help transition workers from fossil industries), hydrokinetic (using waves, currents and tides), and advanced efficiency measures (which provide the cheapest, cleanest form of energy).

This is what is most disconcerning about the American Clean Energy and Security Act. This bill is supposed to lay the strategy for our epic fight against the climate crisis, but what it mostly ends up doing is bailing out fossil intensive industries propping them up to fight for continued handouts while drawning out efforts from emergin firms to innovate the way we produce, distribute and use energy.

There will most likely be a floor vote in the house about the American Clean Energy and Security Act in about two weeks. Now is the time to get active in your community. Call your representative, visit his or her district office and tell them you will not stand for a warming world, that the future of our planet is worth more than the FutureGen gamble tell them you want them to introduce amendments to:

1. Axe the $500 energy tax earmarked for ”clean coal” development and divert the giveaways for coal plants and oil refiners to clean energy research, development and deployment.
2. Strengthen the Renewable and Energy Efficiency Standards to 30% by 2020 with a at least a >2% carveout for solar.
3. Strengthen emission reduction targets to 30% below 1990 levels by 2020 as science demands.