Since I posted Headline at MIT Technology Review: (April 15, just below), it has been nagging at the back of my mind that “clean coal” projects probably were not exempt from the crony capitalist excesses of the eco-industrial complex. So there was likely more to the Peabody Energy bankruptcy story than simply deploring all the failed wind/solar/battery #Greenfail projects we’ve funded. I had some time this morning to check.
Turns out, the Feds spent $2.5 billion between 1978 and 2008 on “clean coal.”
In 2002, the Bush administration picked up the baton and allocated almost $2 billion (of which $200 million was actually spent) over 10 years to the idea. They killed it in 2008.
It was revived in the Obama administration’s 2009 stimulus package before being killed again in 2015.
So, “clean coal,” even though industry had to pay 50% of project costs, is another example of the government promoting failed environmental projects. In this case, deciding to go the additional mile to make sure the entire coal industry disappears.
All that money could have resulted in quite a bit of carbon-emissionless nuclear power, and it would have been financed entirely by industry – if they’d been allowed to.