To clean up coal, Obama pushes more oil production
America's newest and cleanest coal-fired power plant comes with a catch: The heat-trapping carbon dioxide removed from its smokestack pollution will help force more oil out of the ground.
Some environmentalists complain that it ends up releasing more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than is stored underground as waste.
It's another example of the Obama administration promoting new, cleaner technologies and allowing companies to do things it otherwise would oppose as harmful to the environment. At first, the idea behind "carbon-capture" technology was to make coal plants cleaner by burying the carbon dioxide deep underground that they typically pump out of smokestacks. But that green vision proved too expensive and complicated, so the administration accepted a trade-off.
To help the environment, the government allows power companies to sell the carbon dioxide to oil companies, which pump it into old oil fields to force more crude to the surface. A side benefit is that the carbon gets permanently stuck underground.
http://www.sfgate.com/news/texas/article/To-clean-up-coal-Obama-pushes-more-oil-production-5086068.php
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