Coal can continue to meet future energy needs even as we reduce carbon emissions if we advance new technologies, according to a recent report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).(1) The multidisciplinary team of MIT researchers suggests that carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology could enable the United States to significantly reduce CO2 emissions while meeting energy needs. In doing so, the researchers conclude, the nation could move away from reliance on unstable foreign sources of oil, tap sources of coal in stable countries, bridge the transition to new carbon-free energy technologies, and address the problem of global warming. Indeed, the authors conclude, coal may be one of the most practical ways to reduce and eventually eliminate our dependence on foreign sources of oil.

Global warming, the report’s authors concur, will be stabilized only through global adherence to CO2 emission constraints. To achieve that goal, the United States must take the lead if emerging economies are expected to follow. The study’s authors advocate U.S. assumption of global leadership on CCS technology through policy actions, including the near-term imposition of “a significant charge on carbon emissions” to make new technologies more attractive, assistance to “first of a kind” demonstration projects employing carbon capture technologies, and the elimination of “perverse incentives” that permit the development of new coal plants without CCS technology. They also recommend investment in large-scale CCS demonstration projects to determine the technical, economic, and environmental feasibility of these CCS technologies.

Possible Implications for Kentucky:  The growing concern over global warming, rising energy demands, and political instability in the Middle East virtually ensure that pressure will continue to build for the development and use of clean coal technology. Clean coal technology has long held the promise of economic bounty for Kentucky, a steady stream of revenue from coal severance taxes and good-paying jobs in otherwise depressed regions. Kentucky produces around 10 percent of the nation’s coal, ranking third behind Wyoming and West Virginia. Yet, only 15,500 mining jobs remained in 2004, down from nearly 50,000 in the late 1970s, according to the Kentucky Office of Energy Policy, though today’s miners produce more than double the coal their 1970s counterparts did.