Clean coal report 'misleading', claim environmentalists

The clean coal report [1] released today by The Centre for Policy Studies, has been criticised by Friends of the Earth Cymru for being misleading and over-critical of renewable energy. The environmental group believes that it has been misquoted in the report.

Neil Crumpton, energy campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said of the report and Powerfuel's clean coal proposal:

"This misleading report by the Centre for Policy Studies will not help the debate about coal gasification and carbon capture and storage. Friends of the Earth has not even heard about the proposed Hatfield clean coal scheme, let alone supported it as the report claims. And our executive director, Tony Juniper, has been quoted out of context in a report which is pro-nuclear and anti-renewables. We don't agree with its analysis or conclusions, including the high cost estimates on renewables and the low estimates on new coal generation.

"We would like to see some carbon capture and storage demonstration schemes in the UK, preferably on industrial sites near the North Sea and Liverpool Bay coasts. At such locations there is the potential to use some or much of the hot water from the power stations thereby improving their overall efficiency. Such sites, unlike Powerfuel's proposal at Hatfied colliery, would not involve the construction of long, over-land pipelines carrying carbon dioxide to sub-sea storage sites."

Notes

1. 'Clean Coal: A Clean, Secure and Affordable Alternative' by the Centre for Policy Studies