What is the main weapon being used against us in the "War On Coal"? If it's the Carbon Dioxide issue, then, believe it or not, we have some allies in other nations and other states.
There is a broad-scale and international development underway to perfect the technology of what has become widely known as "artificial photosynthesis", wherein solar light energy is used to power the conversion of Carbon Dioxide, as harvested from whatever convenient source, into hydrocarbon fuels, especially into a substitute for shale natural gas Methane - which shale gas isn't nearly as abundant or as clean as it's now-suspect supporters in our press and in our government would clearly prefer to have us believe.
For example, as accessible via the link, here is an article:
"All-solid-State Z-scheme System Arrays of Fe2V4O13/RGO/CdS for Visible Light-driving Photocatalytic CO2 Reduction into Renewable Hydrocarbon Fuel";
written by a team of scientists from China and Japan.
The paper was accepted as an official "Chemical Communication" and published by Great Britain's Royal Society of Chemistry late last year.
But, the only place, as far as we could determine, making a full copy of it freely available, as via the link, is, strange as it might sound, the University of Arkansas.
The Abstract reads:
"An all-solid-state Z-scheme system array consisting of an Fe2V4O13 nanoribbon (NR)/reduced graphene oxide (RGO)/CdS nanoparticle grown on the stainless-steel mesh was rationally designed for photoconversion of gaseous CO2 into renewable hydrocarbon fuels(methane: CH4)".
We will all keep ignoring this stuff, it seems, in the places, like United States Coal Country, where it could really matter, to the detriment of both our economy and our national security; and, unless we all wake up and demand that the truth be both told and acted upon, to the detriment as well of our economically essential Coal-fired power generation industries.
But, does anyone out there have any idea why that would be so? Why is it, does anyone suppose, we would, in the parts of the USA where both Carbon Dioxide and the dangerous shale gas farce are of direct concern to multiple, though somewhat disparate, groups of people, prefer to continue along the contentious, unproductive paths we've been on when genuine options, like artificial photosynthesis for the production of renewable hydrocarbon fuels out of Carbon Dioxide, are becoming available?
We could be adding industries and jobs in Coal Country, not killing them, or just letting them die because we don't have the will or the energy to focus on and promote genuinely productive alternatives.
Carbon Dioxide, as we might harvest as a byproduct co-generated by our economically essential use of Coal in the production of abundant and affordable electric power, can be seen and treated as a valuable raw material resource. The rest of the world, as in this document being made available by the University of Arkansas, is waking up to that fact. Has anyone set the alarm clock in Coal Country?
http://www.uark.edu/…/qua…/group%20paper/2015/c4cc08744e.pdf