"Sequestration prevents carbon from entering the atmosphere by capturing and storing the gas underground in geologic caverns and oil formations. Sequestration is extremely costly."
And:
"It doesn't make sense spending public dollars putting a valuable waste product (carbon dioxide) underground. Algae are a biological alternative. There are certainly challenges to growing algae near coal plants: algae bioreactors have not been implemented on a large scale, coal power plants don't have a lot of excess water, and power companies are not farmers! Growing algae is fundamentally a farming operation - controlling inputs and harvesting algae sustainably. When has the word "harvest" entered the vocabulary of a coal plant operator? Coal farmers - a foreign concept."
We all know that "Sequestration is extremely costly". And, the real cost must include a calculation for the fact that, as we have repeatedly said, "It doesn't make sense spending public dollars putting a valuable waste product (carbon dioxide) underground". Carbon dioxide is actually a by-product of our coal use. It only becomes a "waste product" when we treat it like one.
In any case, this article on the use of algae to take advantage of a valuable coal-use by-product, we're certain inadvertently, evokes again the spirit of West Virginia's State Seal: The Miner and the Farmer, together, working for the future. The excerpt concludes with the thought that "Coal farmers" would be "a foreign concept". We think, instead, that it could, and should, become a domestic ideal.