A little Christmas humor from online personality Rob Cottingham at Social Signal who knows all too well that clean coal is a joke.

Did you know that a typical coal power plant in the United States will emit 3.7 million tons of carbon dioxide, 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and 10,200 tons of nitrogen oxide this year?

I came across a great “top ten” list assembled by the Union of Concerned Scientists that paints a very clear picture of the major pollutants still being emitted by the US coal power generation industry.

I’ve made it into a static reference page on DeSmogBlog, you can click here to go the page: Facts on the Pollution caused by the US Coal Industry.

You can also download a PDF version of the fact sheet here: Facts on the Pollution caused by the US Coal Industry (PDF Version)

The Union of Concerned Scientists has released a report today outlining the considerable risks associated with so-called "clean coal" and carbon capture and storage technology (pdf.)

Clean coal has been a persistent theme throughout the US election, with presidential candidates on both sides of the political ledger touting the message that coal is somehow clean. As coal industry commentator and author Jeff Goodell puts it best: 

Clean coal" is not an actual invention, a physical thing – it is an advertising slogan. Like "fat-free donuts" or "interest-free loans."

Andy Revkin's New York Times Dot Earth has published a letter from Vic Svec, Senior Vice President for Peabody Energy, the largest private coal company in the world, reacting to the statement made earlier this week by NASA's Dr. James Hansen that top executives of coal and oil companies should be tried for “crimes against humanity and nature.”