The ACCCE, a coalition of coal and energy companies that have been paying for a deluge of advertising discussing the merits of clean coal technology made a LOT of money last year. That was last year.

Since the very first dollar was spent on carbon sequestration technology, that "clean coal" coalition has spent about 6% of that money acftually doing research on carbon storage. And the VAST majority of that comes from two projects, one from Duke Energy and the other from Mississippi Power.

The scary and true thing about coal companies is that they have never spent money on research unless they were required to. The only significant research undertakings of the coal industry were spurred by the clean air act.

Carbon storage is one of the most important aspects of our clean energy future, but the companies that have the ability to research and implement it have no reason to do so. So we're stuck with renewables (likely a more expensive option) being researched and developed far more quickly. Just one more reason why old industries die hard.

There is really no surprise here. Energy companies will not spend money cleaning up their act unless they are forced to. And while the $45 M they've spent on advertising (and $125M they've spent on lobbying congress) is a pretty strong force for the status quo, I'd like to think that true progress, and clean technology will win the day.

Information for this article comes from a report (PDF) published by the Center for American Progress.