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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

New Coal-Oil Technique - Energy Boom or Bust for Iowa?

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Thursday, June 14, 2007   



Des Moines, IA - Even though all of Iowa's coal mines closed over ten years ago, Iowa still has over 2 billion tons in coal reserve just under the surface across the southern third of the state. Some see a way to cash in on those reserves by turning it into a liquid. A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council says there is a big downside to this process.
Comments from report co-author Deron Lovaas (LOH-voss).


During the last century, Iowa was a major coal producing state, but the coal's high sulfur content made it less desirable than other energy sources, and the last of the mines closed in 1995. Now, soaring gas prices have renewed interest in the state's reserve of 2.2 billion tons of coal, using process to turn it into a liquid. Deron Lovaas with the Natural Resources Defense Council has researched the "liquid coal" method as well as oil shale and tar sand production, and he says there's a big downside when it comes to pollution.


Things get much worse with all three of these alternatives and liquid coal is the worst of the bunch. You get about twice the global warming pollution from liquid coal as you get from conventional gasoline.

Lovaas says production pollution is just one part of the equation for combating climate-change pollution - another is controlling it at the tailpipe ...


Boost efficiency, and that means cars with higher fuel economy, and look at low-polluting alternatives such as ethanol and electricity.

Lovaas says oil companies are looking for price guarantees and tax breaks to develop alternative oil from coal, touting it as a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil.


During the last century, Iowa was a major coal producing state, but the coal's high sulfur content made it less desirable than other energy sources, and the last of the mines closed in 1995. Now, soaring gas prices have renewed interest in the state's reserve of 2.2 billion tons of coal, using process to turn it into a liquid. Craig Lewis reports.

...at the tailpipe.

The report is at www.nrdc.org. Deron Lovaas is at 202-289-2384.





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