The vast majority of oil is used for transportation and industrial production (with some minor exceptions for kerosene and home heating oil). Coal is generally used for heating and power generation. Development of so-called “clean coal” technology for power generation simply will not impact oil use and the problems inherent in an oil dependent economy - they are separate issues.

Iowa coal tends to have a high sulphur content, and is simply not as useful or interesting as a fuel for major electricity generation because of that. Researching ways to reduce toxic emissions from coal-fired power plants is probably good, but we actually already know how to reduce emissions significantly in many cases. Our current environmental policies may actually discourage major coal plant upgrades.

A progressive energy policy would focus on overall reduction of energy use (electric, transportation, and production), particularly energy that comes from fossil fuels, instead of technical solutions for maintaining current growth trends.

On the other hand, I strongly believe that the end solution to the so-called “energy problem” is not going to be a technical one. Technical solutions like clean coal may help ease the transition. It will be necessary to fundamentally change development patterns, transportation priorities, and individual habits. James Howard Kunstler is kind of a doomsday nutcase about the implications, but the underlying thesis in “The Long Emergency” is worth considering.

Reducing pollution from coal-fired power plants should be a short term goal - we agree on that. The government should help fund research towards that goal and require that all power plants implement pollution reduction measures. This will most definitely raise the cost of electricity, which has definite economic implications.

Right now, the government incentivizes the “wrong” decisions pretty much across the board. Old coal-fired power plants don’t upgrade because they would trigger massive clean air investments (scrubbers, etc). Transportation and development infrastructure expenditures promote low-occupancy vehicles and low density. Gasoline prices don’t reflect the external costs of use.

Obama couldn’t win an election on an “gasoline and electricity will keep getting more and more expensive” platform. My sense is that we are headed in that direction. Clean coal may deal with some of the ecological externalities of electricity generation, but it won’t help the price.