Even if you clean coal up so squeaky clean there is no particulate matter or any co2 emissions whatsoever you will still be left with the ravaged earth left behind by mining. Appalachia is being systematically destroyed  by Mountain Top Removal and what is left will be the Chernobyl of this country. The toxic sludge ponds that permeate the region seeping heavy metals into the soil will remain toxic for generations. The chemicals from the coal cleaning may be bound up with something or dissolve in a generation or two. The heavy metals introduced into the eco system has a shelf life almost as long as radium. The stripping out west is devastating to the water table but looks almost natural when you fill in the hole on flat land and spray a little weed seed mix on it. The destruction of the mountains, valleys and fresh water streams in Appalachia is criminal and when we also become the new Love Canal East the total cost of mine corporation short sightedness and greed will be evident for generations to come.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

Just because the land surface may look normal again, doesn't mean the subsurface is restored, valley fill mining (the corrolary to MTR) will leach to the groundwater and continue other damage long term.

Back to the main topic here, I think there's a reason my friends and I used to refer to this weekly magazine as Newsweak ..   Heh.  To get a clear view of the horizon, the ostrich needs to lift its head out of the ground!

Moving toward sustainability with hopefulness, one revolution at a time.

The reason the logic is so circular is that that reportes and pundits like this can't say out loud the real reason we can only choose between dirty coal and "clean coal"--the coal lobbyists have a whole lot more influence with Congress and state lawmakers than public opinion does, and the wind and solar industies have not gotten on board with the proper activities to getting their technologies taken seriously enough to merit more than token subsidies" rubbing the naked bodies of Congresspeople with the oil of large quantities of dollars.

Newsweek is nothing but corporate propaganda, like the rest of the corporate media.  There are good stories to be read in this media, but overall it can't be taken seriously by anyone who wants to actually be informed.  Unfortunately, the corporate media gets the most exposure by far, starting with the worst of it, television.