What will be the rate of technological advancement for clean coal technologies, rapid or incremental?
The uncertainty of the policy and funding environment is strongly influenced by concerns about issues including climate change, economic development, energy security, and natural gas and crude oil prices relative to coal. Although the rate of technology advancement will have some dependence on supportive policies and funding levels, it will also depend on the success or failure of other non- or minimally carbon-contributing energy sources, including nuclear, biofuels, solar, and wind. Although four scenarios are possible with these axes, we concentrate on the two that perhaps present the most immediate challenges for the United States (“Leave it in the Ground” and “King Coal”). These are disruptive but for different reasons and we detail the opportunities and threats for each of these scenarios. We also briefly describe the other two scenarios: The case of high economic emphasis and incremental clean coal technology development (“Wealth Not Health”) would ultimately lead to an environm
