Obviously, this isn’t great news for the coal industry. What’s that expression — cry me a river? It doesn’t mean CCS can’t be put to good use in rich countries, but obviously that will come at higher cost. Will anyone want to pay developed-world prices to get the needed 100 or so clean coal and carbon sequestration projects working? Tough to say, but I doubt it. Developing-world projects were considered a way to get some volume deployment, and without that, it doesn’t look good for coal. But given what’s on the line for Canada, Australia, the U.S. and others, leaving out CCS doesn’t look good for Copenhagen either, so someone’s going to have to give.

Isn’t international politics fun?

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.