Thanks to the go-ahead on offshore drilling, and despite much hand-wringing to the contrary, there are signs that America’s energy amnesia is finally in remission, a West Virginia University professor proclaimed in a Herald-Dispatch article.

Yet this good news gives rise to worrisome questions: Will the US Congress address the need for coal and nuclear power? Or will nothing be done to help finance the construction of baseload power plants that use advanced technologies such as coal-to-gas systems and carbon capture-and-storage? More...

Uhde’s Prenflo process has been gasifying high-sulfur petroleum coke and coal for 10 years at the world’s largest IGCC plant south of Madrid, Spain at Puertollano. The Elcogas plant uses a mixed, solid 50/50 petcoke/coal feed with 23% ash and up to 10% olive waste as biomass.

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