The article begins by stating how coal is used to power many power plants. Coal is then called the best of fuels and the worst of fuels. It is the best of fuels due to its high abundance and it is relatively inexpensive. It is the worst of fuel due to the high amount of carbon dioxide that it releases into the atmosphere. While America is currently emits the highest amount of CO2 in the world, China is rapidly approaching America and is expecting to bypass America by 2020. The article then goes on to talk about a way to burn the coal while piping all of the CO2 into the earth which would stop most of it from entering the atmosphere. It begins to talk about different power plants that are currently operating on coal. It shows exactly how they work, what they produce and how they deal with the waste product. Then it goes on to talk about states that are trying to get more of these plants established. People are still looking at the pros and the cons of such plants. People are the worried that we are going to be hurting the Earths surface rather than its atmosphere.
I believe the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) coal plant is a perfect solution to help make coal a more environmentally friendly resource. This would help reduce the CO2 emissions emitted from the coal which in turn would help reduce the effects of global warming around the world. One thing that concerns me is piping all of the CO2 into the earth. I feel that some sort of negative effect could eventually come out of this. I feel until we are able to find an alternative fuel source we must rely on what we have in abundance. By using these coal plants we can remain independent, make the best of what we have and still be environmentally friendly.
- If people see the new coal plants as such a savior towards the environment and positive in every way why do we not have much more of these types of plants around the country?
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