Quote:
coal isn't all that clean really
Please forgive me. I should have said it's anthracite that is burning. a hard natural coal of high luster differing from bituminous coal in containing little volatile matter and in burning very cleanly called also hard coal
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anthracite
Sorry, if we are going to correct each other, natural gas is by far the cleanest of the fossil fuels out there beating out even coal. We'd be better off burning crude oil, so my statement was basically correct. Coal isn't really a clean energy source at all. Sorry if you felt the need to defend yourself, I wasn't trying to start an argument, but it is something I have looked into.
Fossil Fuel Emission Levels
- Pounds per Billion Btu of Energy Input
Pollutant Natural Gas Oil Coal
Carbon Dioxide 117,000 164,000 208,000
Carbon Monoxide 40 33 208
Nitrogen Oxides 92 448 457
Sulfur Dioxide 1 1,122 2,591
Particulates 7 84 2,744
Mercury 0.000 0.007 0.016
http://www.naturalgas.org/environment/naturalgas.asp