One of the problems that advocates of global warming awareness face is what is actually causing global warming. As a whole, we have a tendency to blame global warming on anything that comes our way, from coal to cats. It opens us up to counter attack, and at the rate at which it happens, it degrades our credibility. What we have to be careful of is not attributing everything that is reported as being a cause of global warming with our full support; occasionally, people are wrong.

So that is why the news of massive coal deposits underneath Wyoming and Montana has to be treated with kid gloves.

An American federal report released last week identified an estimated 550 billion tons worth of coal in the Powder River Basin that straddles Wyoming and Montana. According to the report, Wyoming has an estimated 510 billion tons of coal, and Montana some 40 billion. This coal reserve is enough to power America’s current electric appetite for the next 493 years.

It is not up for debate that the current process of converting coal in to energy for earth’s populations has been detrimental to the planet. The carbon emissions released by burning the coal has substantially added to the already growing mass of greenhouse gases choking our atmosphere, and burning a hole through the ozone above Antarctica.

However, this time around, we may be looking at a less damaging process, considering the political mess it would cause and the geological issues.

The major issue is the fact that, at 500 feet underneath the earth, this bank of coal is well beyond conventional mining methods, ie, strip mining and turning the surrounding area in to a lunar like impact crater.

John Wold, chairman and CEO of GasTech Inc., has come out saying that "The need here in America is for development of technology to get that…" coal. In fact, GasTech is expecting to make an announcement soon regarding a partnership that will pioneer a new form of mining for coal.

The process would involve underground gasification, a process that turns carbonaceous materials in to various forms of energy, including syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen released from the gasification process.

The new mining method would involve drilling down to the coal, and manipulating the coal reserves underground. By creating the process underground, the next step would be to then pump the refined product to the surface to produce the electricity.

Underground gasification is theoretically safer for the environment, as well as a productive means of acquiring coal reserves too deep for normal strip mining. And though it may be prohibitively more expensive, gasification has long been held as a possible answer to the need for cleaner energy sources.

In fact, gasification is hoped to one day be able to create energy using anything from wood – not all that ecologically friendly – or plastic – rather more ecologically friendly, considering the growing piles of it in the worlds trash heaps.

So is a relatively cleaner use of coal going to be the bridge between the abusive power generators of our generation to the renewable sources such as ocean and wind power? Or is it just another grab by the coal industry to continue making money with no regard for future generations?

Reuters

Star Tribune

Photo Courtesy of dogcaught