The Clean Coal fantasy has a myriad of angles to consider. Whether we're discussing mercury and tuna (and limitations on feeding children canned tuna fish), CO2 emissions and global warming, the atrocity of mountain-top removal, the diesel burnt in moving coal from mine to electricity plant, black lung disease, the poverty of mining regions, and so many other issues, the advertising of "clean coal" has so many disparate falsehoods that it is hard to keep track of which dishonesty is on the top of the pile at any given moment.
Leading into Christmas, the "clean coal" disinformation campaign sought to get all cute on us (on the US), treating us to coal's to the sacreliege of lumps of coal engaged in Christmas caroling. Christmas eve reality: a massive environmental disaster in Tennessee thanks to not-so-clean coal.
Considering the recent 'clean coal' Christmas caroling, Christmas Eve events in Tennessee remind us of another element of reality, the remnants after the burning, that pesky little out-of-sight, out-of-mind "fly ash" building up massively around the globe as the burning of coal continues to mount. While fly ash continues a myriad of pollutants (mercury, uranium, etc), it actually gets dirtier along with efforts to clean smokestack emissions. The better the filtering of the smokestack, the more dangerous materials residing in the fly ash.
And, of course, Frosty the Coalman:
Frosty the Coalman is a Jolly Happy Soul
He’s Abundant here in America and he helps our economy roll
Frosty the Coalman is getting cleaner everyday
He’s affordable and adorable and helps workers keep their pay
There must have some magic in Clean Coal technology
For when they looked for pollutants, there was nearly none to see
Frosty the Coalman is a Jolly Happy Soul
He’s Abundant here in America and he helps our economy roll
Thumpity Thump Thump … Thumpity Thump Thump … Look at Frost Go.
Toward Energy Independence we go …
Rather than such a cute image on our doorsteps, the reality of coal hit Tennessee hard for Christmas eve.
One of the reckless realities of the Bush malfeasance has been eight years of ever weaker oversight and inspection of the mining industry, including of storage 'facilities' like that which failed in Tennessee. Was this Murray site in accordance with code? Was the company reckless in procedures and processes? These are questions that investigation in the coming weeks (maybe not, Bush Administration, after all) and months (perhaps under Barack Obama) will likely answer. In the meantime, we have a reminder of yet another ugly reality behind the false advertising of "Clean Coal".
One might say that the coal industry has a bit of a smudge on its face when it comes to its image this Christmas as we get a taste of reality
For some discussions of the Coal Ash spill, see:
DeSmogBlog: Massive Coal Ash Spill in Tennessee puts the lie to Clean Coal (also HuffPost on Clean Coal)
When it comes to PR spindoctoring there is always one surefire cure - reality.
If you were fooled by the multimillion dollar "clean coal" PR marketing campaign take a look at [the] video footage of a massive flood of toxic coal sludge from a dam that burst at a local coal company's processing plant in Tennessee yesterday.
The spill covered as many as 400 acres of land with toxic ash as high as six feet deep.
Greenpeace call for investigation (See The True Cost of Coal)
Greenpeace today called for a criminal investigation into the failure of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to prevent the spill of more than 500 million gallons of coal ash sludge into the Emory River, a tributary of the Clinch and Tennessee Rivers. The spill followed the breach of a dike at a coal-fired power plant owned by the TVA, and covered as many as 400 acres of land with potentially toxic ash as high as six feet deep.
"Every facility like this is supposed to have a spill contingency plan to prevent this kind of disaster," said Rick Hind, Greenpeace Legislative Director. "The authorities need to get to the bottom of what went wrong and hold the responsible parties accountable."
NRDC: Real Life Coal Disaster pops Clean Coal Fantasy
Let's see how the "clean coal" PR hucksters at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity try to spin this tragic news: a retention pond holding toxic coal ash slurry burst Monday in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing over half a billion gallons of potentially toxic sludge that swept into the nearby town of Harriman and contaminated tributaries of the Tennessee River. The resulting flood damaged 15 homes, injured one man as it knocked his house of its foundations, and has left over 400 acres of land covered by several feet of coal ash, mud and contaminated water
Watthead: This is Clean Coal (also at It's Getting Hot in Here: This is Clean Coal: Massive Coal Sludge Spill dwarfs Exxon Valdez; Focus the Nation: Massive Coal Sludge Spill; and Clean Energy: This is Clean Coal)
Let's see how the "clean coal" PR hucksters at the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity try to spin this tragic news: a retention pond holding toxic coal ash slurry burst Monday in Roane County, Tennessee, releasing over half a billion gallons of potentially toxic sludge that swept into the nearby town of Harriman and contaminated tributaries of the Tennessee River. The resulting flood damaged 15 homes, injured one man as it knocked his house of its foundations, and has left over 400 acres of land covered by several feet of coal ash, mud and contaminated water
Scholar & Rogues: Ash Flood Superfund (Note: many good links to news coverage and other blog posts.)
A major environmental disaster occurred yesterday, but few news outlets outside Tennessee appear to be covering it: 2.6 million cubic yards (about 525 million gallons) of fly ash sludge poured out from behind an earthen embankment at the Kingston coal plant (source: The Tennessean). S&R’s Wendy Redal blogged about the October, 2000 Massey Energy coal slurry flood earlier this month - this ashslide is bigger, and while it’s more solid, it still covers 400 acres in up to 6 feet of toxic coal ash.
Science Blogs: Let's talk about Clean Coal
When power plants burn coal to produce energy, the coal doesn't just vanish into the atmosphere to cause global warming. No, there's a substantial amount of left-over sludge called coal ash, a nasty mess that is enriched for toxic heavy metals. It is seriously nasty stuff. This glop has to be stored, somewhere, usually piled up and walled-off, because it's not healthy for anything.
And, a call for rapid investigation of similar sites throughout coal country, such as for Pennsylvania.
Unfortunately, during the Bush Administration, the EPA's industry-friendly approach has meant little or no effective scrutiny of the coal industry, and greater potential for catastrophes like this. The EPA's stance may change after our new president takes office in January, but for now, we need to call for stronger oversight closer to home. ... Add your name to the petition at right to let Governor Rendell know that you're concerned about disasters like this happening in Pennsylvania -- and urge him to oppose new coal plants and take a leadership role on renewable energy.
1Sky: Tennesseans get a reminder of just how dirty coal is
Yesterday, the people of Tennessee got a real-life reminder that coal is a dirty fuel.
Democracy Now
coal is 40 percent of our electric source in the US and is inherently polluting, as we see, from beginning to end, from the mining to the destruction of the environment, elimination of fishing and hunting areas, ruining people’s livelihoods there, as well as the mercury, the asthma that these power plants cause for local kids playing soccer in communities near coal plants—coal-fired power plants, that is—and then, of course, the greenhouse gases, the climate change that could create extreme weather. I mean, they said that five inches of rain caused this pond to give way. That’s ridiculous. These ponds should be built for more than that. But it just shows that this is an inherently dangerous polluting technology. And we have safer alternatives, so why not switch?
By the way, an amusing coincidence, with the Clean Coal disinformation campaign reaching out for volunteer bloggers for the "Clean Coal Blogger Brigade" as the spill floods out to endanger Tennessee's water supply.
The coal industry is attempting to organize bloggers to promote their false “clean coal” propaganda. ... his is the latest in a series of netcentric efforts from the coal public relations people. They’ve launched a Facebook page, Twitter feed, and have littered blogs with comments defending coal. No matter how large ABEC’s “Blogger Brigade” gets, they still won’t be able to hide the toxic and dirty reality of coal.
NOTE: Just released, a CAP report examining the disconnect between the coal industry's "clean coal" disinformation effort against their investments to seek to make their advertising vision a reality.
As a note ... We really should seek to avoid using the truthiness and disinformation-laden term Clean Coal. More accurate and appropriate terms include: Slightly Less Filthy Coal; Sort-of Less Polluting Coal; and Somewhat Less Deadly Coal. Each of these more accurately capture the quite real advances we have seen in the coal industry through recent decades.