Carbon-eating Algae An Excuse to Burn More Coal

In Gwynne Dyer's stunning and essential book Climate Wars: The Fight for Survival as the World Overheats, he demonstrates that neither reducing carbon outputs nor developing new methods of carbon sequestration can, by itself, save humanity from the catastrophe of an overheated planet.

The only hope, he concludes, is to pursue both paths at the same time, with equal urgency.

Kentucky, unfortunately, is still chasing after the chimera of carbon sequestration that will permit profligate burning of coal forever.

From the Herald:

Ninety-eight interconnected tubes of what appears to be a green, bubbling goo sit inside the greenhouse behind the Center for Applied Energy Research lab at the University of Kentucky.

The goo might not look like much to a casual observer, but it could be one important answer to the nation's energy problem — it's carbon-dioxide-devouring algae. And it can be used to sequester the harmful greenhouse gas and thus make coal a more environmentally responsible option.

The algae research is a partnership between East Kentucky Power Cooperative, UK and the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet. The project started a little more than two years and about $2 million ago.

"We started with algae in petri dishes," said Czarena Crofcheck, a UK faculty member in the department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering who's working on the project.

"The project is an example of how our partnerships ... can advance clean energy in the commonwealth," said Kentucky Energy Secretary Len Peters. He sees coal as an undeniable and unavoidable fact of energy use in Kentucky and the nation.

"It's important to use the state's resources in an environmentally sensitive way," he said.

That's why "aggressive carbon sequestration" projects, like the algae solution, are so important to research, he said.

Do I really have to explain that Peters is a wholly-owned and -operated subsidiary of Big Coal who sprinkles coal dust on his breakfast cereal?

Kentucky's Department of Only-Fossil-Fuels-Are-Energy is more than willing to pour millions of dollars from the empty pockets of Kentucky taxpayers into carbon research as long as that research does not in any way hinder the coal mining that is destroying Appalachia and the natural gas fracking that will poison the rest of the state.

But is Kentucky investing tax dollars in renewable energy? Only if you think "clean coal" is real, which it ain't.

As far as Peters, Cowardly Waste of Oxygen Gov. Steve Beshear and our coal-tarred legislature are concerned, solar, wind, geothermal and other genuine renewables are commiemuslinterrist plots to eliminate the remaining 14 coal mining jobs in Kentucky.

Yep, we're goin' straight down the climate change tubes, singing allegiance and praise to the coal that killed us all the way.