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Originally Posted by Cube Inmate
You, sir, are sadly misinformed if you think this is possible.
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Although his previous post is sadly misinformed, it is indeed quite possible to burn coal with no to very low emissions. It requires capturing the CO2 after combustion. SK is planning to build a plant of this nature. It costs about 2.5 times what a polluting coal plant costs (despite what the article below might imply, I've seen a lot of estimates from credible engineering firms on this) and has not been done on a fully commercial scale, but the technology is there.
http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpo...5c6223&k=68895
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The credits would work except with Kyoto there are 3 or 4 sellers:
US, Canada, Australia, and I think Japan. The rest are all buyers so either these 3/4 countries would sell to their friends for market bottom rates (ie sell to Zimbabwe and in thanks we will give you grain etc).
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Where do you even get these ideas. US is not in Kyoto and therefore not part of the emission trading system at all. Japan has met its Kyoto targets internally and would be a tiny player. Australia is out. Canada would be a massive buyer as we have done the worst of any Kyoto signatory and would be required to buy a lot of credits.
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The Alberta government could use the tax revenues from selling the coal to pay for it. That would solve the whole nonsense with nuclear power in Alberta - sorry, I dont want to Bankrole Saskatchewan.
MYK
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Not even sure what this part is getting at. Coal royalties are tiny since the commodity is not really fungible (Alberta coal is poor quality and the overwhelming majority is consumed with a few km of where it is mined). Uranium royalties are a miniscule revenue item for SK, and one nuclear plant in AB would not even make it into SK's budget as a line item. I've seen estimates that fuel costs for a nuclear plant are about $10/MWh. If SK takes 1/3 of this as a royalty (not sure what the actual royalty is on uranium, but this would probably be higher than actual), a 1000 MW nuclear plant would contribute less than $30m annually to SK. I think Ralph spent that much annually on his private air force.