Obama on No Dirty Coal

From his energy plan: "I will rely on the carbon cap and whatever tools are necessary to stop new dirty coal plants from being built in America -- including a ban on new traditional coal facilities." This statement earned Obama lots of kudos, as it should. But is this the call for a moratorium on new conventional coal plants and phasing out of existing coal plants that's needed? And Obama said nothing about liquefied coal, which he has supported in the past. Until he gets specific on these issues, the jury's still out.

Also from his plan: "Obama will work to ensure that existing coal facilities are retrofitted with carbon capture and sequestration technology as soon as it is commercially available."

The problem is that it's not possible to retrofit an existing coal plant for carbon capture or for storage. Won't be for at least 20 years, if then. Not only that, CCS is too expensive and potentially too dangerous to be feasible as a real solution. It's not the answer to coal.