May 8--Editorial

Like the terms "CFCs" and "ozone layer" during the 1980s, "carbon footprint" has secured a prominent place in the popular lexicon.

Worries about holes in the ozone layer, which first elevated more than two decades ago, have given way to awareness about the impact of carbon emissions -- the footprint -- associated with energy production and use. Society today is beginning to take a real interest in the sources of the energy and the long-term impact of energy production.

Central to this expanding attention to carbon is coal -- Kentucky's state mineral and the source of more than 90 percent of this state's electrical power.

The importance of coal to Kentucky makes the debate at the federal level about possible caps on carbon emissions at coal-fired plants a discussion about this state's future.

Reductions in carbon emissions, while good for the planet, will likely be bad for the budgets of Kentucky's residents, who have enjoyed some of the lowest energy costs for decades. Energy users will likely have to pay a higher price in the future so the environment no longer has to.

Kentucky has begun to embrace the need to address carbon emissions from burning coal. Last week, Gov. Steve Beshear announced the creation of a state consortium by the University of Kentucky's Center for Applied Energy Research that will look at ways to reduce and manage carbon emissions from coal-fire plants using what many are calling "clean coal" technologies.

A recent press release from Peabody Energy Corp., the largest, private-sector coal company in the world, carried the tag of "Clean Coal: America's Energy Future" and noted that the federal stimulus package passed this year includes billions of dollars for carbon capture and storage projects.

That type of research is under way in Kentucky. In Hancock County, public and private dollars are funding the construction of a well to test the viability of storing captured carbon dioxide underground.

The well could achieve what many are banking on for coal to continue to be a predominant fuel for power plants if tighter carbon emission standards are imposed.

That Hancock County project is being underwritten in part by Peabody and ConocoPhillips, two major players in the energy industry that are partnering on a coal-conversion project in Muhlenberg County featured in a presentation Thursday at the Rooster Booster breakfast.

Their Kentucky NewGas project proposes to convert coal into synthetic natural gas at the mouth of a coal mine, with the 80-acre facility producing about 500 long-term jobs in an area that sorely needs them. The project is still in the planning phases, and it has some challenges given the current economy and low price of natural gas.

These projects, coupled with alternative energy incentives approved by lawmakers in recent years, show the initiative required for coal and Kentucky to continue to play a leading role in the energy industry into the future.

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