Clean coal: up there with aliens, mermaids and bigfoot
I just had to point this out to my readers because I think it’s a clever, well-targeted campaign.
A group called The Reality Coalition is running ads on buses and other public transit points that attempt to debunk industry claims that clean coal will be a cost-effective reality anytime soon. The ads show bigfoot, an alien and a mermaid holding a piece of coal, accompanied by the words: “The coal industry is spending millions advertising clean coal, but not a single clean coal power plant exists in the U.S. today.”
The ads are reportedly running in Washington, D.C., just in time for the flood of people heading to the capital for Barack Obama’s inauguration.
Here’s a TV ad released in early December the coalition has also produced. Pretty funny.
Tags: clean coal
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
January 14th, 2009 at 6:02 am
As long as the industry is allowed to continue to use dirty coal, then nobody will build clean coal power stations. The technology does exist, but it is expensive.
Create a regulatory structure that charges for the right to emit CO2 (either trading or tax based) and clean coal plants will become a reality. Otherwise they will remain a much talked about phenomenon just like the Loch Ness monster.
January 14th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
[...] Clean coal: up there with aliens, mermaids and bigfoot I just had to point this out to my readers because I think it’s a clever, well-targeted campaign. A group called The Reality Coalition is running ads on buses and other public transit points that attempt to debunk industry claims that clean coal will be a cost-effective reality anytime soon. The ads show bigfoot, an alien and a mermaid holding a piece of coal, accompanied by the words: “The coal industry is spending millions advertising clean coal, but not a single clean coal power plant exists in the U.S. today.” The ads are reportedly running in Washington, D.C., just in time for the flood of people heading to the capital for Barack Obama’s inauguration. [...]
January 14th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
Not to mention pruning the tangle of regulations to the point where building *any* kind of new power plant actually becomes practical again.
It’s kind of disingenuous to create a regulatory structure that makes test-pilot plants of a new product prohibitively expensive, and then claim that the absence of such plants proves the technology is a non-starter.
January 14th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
Another idea for a clean coal ad:
Scene: Suburban kitchen will all American housewife looking out the window with the sounds of happy children playing in the background.
Housewife: Our sandbox used to be filled will sand. But then I found out that sand is just another form of DIRT. Would you want your children playing in the dirt? That is why we dumped the sand and filled our sandbox with good American Clean Coal. Now I can rest assured that my children can remain healthy. And America has enough Clean Coal reserves to keep our sandbox filled for more than 300 years. [pause] Children! It is time to come in for lunch.
Scene: Door opens and several coughing children, covered head to toe with black coal dust, pour into the kitchen.
First child: Mom, do we need to wash up?
Housewife: No need to wash. That is not dirt. It is just healthly American Clean Coal.
Announcer: Clean Coal. America’s future. Etc.