Should we waste 15-30% of our coal power because of Gore and Hansen's fraud?

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The process routinely saps 30 percent of a plant’s power, resulting in the uncomfortable conundrum of having to burn more coal to clean coal-dirtied discharge. It also drives up the cost of electricity.

Researchers hope chilled ammonia is different.

“Our target is to be able to get the cost of CO2 capture down significantly,” said Hank Courtright, senior vice president of the Electric Power Research Institute, a partner in the project along with American Electric Power and a number of other utilities.

Researchers are hopeful that the process will use about 15 percent of a plant’s electricity capacity, a substantial decrease from other forms of carbon capture. Yet it could still hike the cost of electricity for consumers by 30 percent.

“There is no free lunch in the process,” said Clay Perry, an EPRI spokesman. “It’s going to cost quite a bit of money [and] it’s going to cost quite a bit of plant efficiency.”