There is a real question if coal can ever be “clean.” But with a 250 to 300 year supply of it in the U.S., there’s little doubt it will be part of our fuel supply for the foreseeable future.

In the 1980’s, the issue with coal fired power plants was emissions of sulfur and mercury, which created acid rain. The Reagan Administration came up with the Clean Coal program to develop technology that would address the issue. David Hawkins of the Natural Resources Defense Council says, “The whole idea was to say, gee we don't know how to control this pollution today, so we'll spend some government money and we hope that something comes over the horizon like the cavalry.”

In 2005, the EPA introduced a cap-and-trade program to reduce mercury emissions from coal plants. Experts say this program has helped cut emissions that cause acid rain. But, energy production from coal is still far from an environmentally friendly process. So, the government has invested a lot of money in the FutureGen project. The goal of FutureGen is to create a coal plant that does not produce emissions – a “clean” coal plant. David Hawkins is also critical of this project. He calls it “a substitute for cleaning up these power plants.”

Those working on the project, of course, are less critical. Though, Michael Mudd of the FutureGen Alliance does point out that carbon capture and sequestration will have to be proven to be economical before power producers will adopt the new technologies.

Duke Energy CEO James Rogers, who is also co-chair of the Alliance to Save Energy, is hedging his bets. His company has plans to build a low emission (or IGCC) coal plant in Indiana, a supercritical pulverized coal plant in North Carolina, and a new nuclear plant.

Rogers’ hedging seems to be a smart move, since the U.S. government still hasn’t determined how it will address climate change. Until those policy decisions are made, the “right” answer for new electricity generation will remain unclear. Those policy solutions seem particularly important when you learn there are plans to build 150 coal fired power plants in this country in the next few years. Both power producers and power users (you and me) will benefit if all the costs of creating energy can be factored in before the next generation of plants are built.