US green-lights new clean coal power plant

President-elect Barack Obama's plans for an increase in investment in so-called clean coal technologies has received an early boost after authorities in Arkansas gave the go-ahead for a 600MW coal-powered facility proposed by US utility American Electric Power Co (AEP).

The developers claim the new John W Turk, Jr Power plant, which will be operated by AEP subsidiary Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) will use low-sulfur coal and "state of the art" emission control systems.

SWEPCO said the emission control technology will enable the Turk plant to meet emission limits that are among the most stringent ever imposed on a coal-fired facility and will make it one of the cleanest coal plants ever built.

"Coal is essential to meeting the growing energy needs of our region and our country, and we will put new technology to work at Turk that will generate electricity more efficiently with less environmental impact," said SWEPCO president and chief operating officer Paul Chodak.

The plant will burn low-sulfur coal and will generate energy using a high-temperature process which SWEPCO claims improves efficiency and reduces emissions. So-called "ultra-supercritical" plants are already operational in Europe and Asia but the Turk facility is the first of its kind to be built in the US, according to the company.

Construction is expected to begin immediately, following the granting of the air permit, and is expected to create around 1,400 jobs with a completion date of 2012.

However, the planning approval decision, along with Obama's support for clean coal technologies, is likely to draw fire from green groups who argue that regardless of improvements in efficiency coal-fired power stations cnnot operate as part of genuinely low carbon economy.

Friends of the Earth recently claimed that burning coal was the leading contributor to global warming pollution in the United States, adding that "the entire fuel cycle of coal, from mining to combustion, has significant environmental and societal impacts".

Despite the support for the Turk coal plant in Arkansas, other US states are taking a tougher line on new coal. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently proposed a policy which would impose stringent carbon emission standards on new coal-fired power plants that would effectively ban plants built without carbon capture and storage technology.