A U.S. task force formed by President Barack Obama called Thursday for a strong government role to promote clean coal as an energy source. “A diversified energy portfolio, which includes coal, is important for a strong 21st century American economy,” Nancy Sutley, the chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement. The multi-agency task force delivered recommendations on carbon capture and storage (CCS)-an undeveloped technology that aims to trap carbon emission from coal-fired power plants and store them underground-on Thursday. “These recommendations move us toward brining safe and deployable CCS technologies to the marketplace to help us meet the goal of reducing harmful carbon emission while continuing to use this energy source,” Sutley said. The task force called for government financial and technological support to meet Obama's goal of creating up to 10 CCS demonstration projects by 2016.
