I know big oil and big coal companies already have their hooks in the government but with hope we might be able to change the course. Clean Coal is just a name that tries to hide what it really is. Researching and utilizing this method of energy capture will only postpone the wide use of actual clean and renewable energy sources. Clean Coal still consumes quite a bit of petroleum. The coal has to be dug up, or scraped from the surface of the earth with large gas powered vehicles. Then the coal has to be transported to a clean coal facility.

How environmentally friendly is the coal that is scraped from huge areas of our landscape? I can imagine large ecosystems being irreversibly damaged or fully wiped out with the scraping or digging for coal.

Since there are already large stores of coal and land owned with the purpose of gathering the coal from it, I think this technology will still be fully realized, ignoring all of the negatives.

The positive? Slightly less reliance on the almighty OIL.