Big Coal's Dirty Plans for U.S.A. Energy Future

clipped from www.alternet.org Big coal is hoping for government subsidies to replace oil. But its "clean coal" plan is an ecological nightmare for everyone. Just as the American people and the world are beginning to recognize the necessity of shifting to renewable energies, Big Coal, in collusion with an out-of-step administration, is pushing their dirty fossil fuel as the solution to our nation's energy crisis. Big Coal and its cohorts envision a "clean coal technology" future fuelled by liquefying and gasifying coal, capturing the carbon emissions and injecting them underground. By 2030 the West Virginia Division of Energy -- a nascent state agency formed in July, 2007 -- wants to oust oil and exalt coal by displacing the 1.3 billion gallons of foreign oil the state currently imports every year. But scientists and environmentalists say "clean coal" does not exist The extraction and cleaning of coal inevitably decimate ecosystems and communities.