Clean Coal Out in the Cold?

"Clean coal" describes any process that can reduce pollutants from coal-burning power plants. Because coal will likely remain one of the nation's lowest-cost electric power sources for the foreseeable future and concerns over global climate change, the coal industry has committed to advancing clean coal technologies.

The U.S. has the world's largest coal reserves, much of which is in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and West Virginia. There has been environmental damage connected to the extraction of coal causing many to question if coal can ever truly be clean.

The Obama administration is moving ahead with the development of the clean coal technology of carbon capture and storage. “Carbon capture and storage” or carbon sequestration, requires that carbon dioxide emissions be captured in the smokestacks of coal-fired power plants and factories, and then converted into a liquid and pumped into reservoirs deep in the earth.

Because the prohibitively high cost of carbon capture and storage has deterred energy companies from constructing commercial-scale power plants with carbon sequestration systems, the government has earmarked $3.4 billion for carbon sequestration technologies in the 2009 stimulus bill.

The Obama administration has also signaled that Congress, not the Environmental Protection Agency alone, should act of the issue of pollution. Lisa Jackson, President Obama's chief of the EPA, has called for legislation to address carbon dioxide emissions.

Teaching with the Constitution
Ask your students if the right to a clean and healthy environment is implied by the constitution? Then ask them if a constitutional amendment is needed to protect the environment?

Ask your students if they agree with President Obama’s pledge to continue developing clean coal technology? Ask them, what other ways can climate change be addressed? Then ask them how incentives can be used to address climate change?

Ask your students what in Article II allows the chief of the EPA to be a member of the President's cabinet?

Ask your students what in Article I gives Congress the power to determine environmental standards? Then ask them if Congress should enact legislation to restrict carbon dioxide emissions?