Duke Energy CEO on Colbert Report

Duke Energy's CEO, Jim Rogers, was on the Colbert Report yesterday to talk about "clean" coal technologies. He didn't directly answer Colbert's question as to how many clean coal plants Duke Energy currently has (answer: they don't exist yet), but he did explained how carbon sequestration works and why it is an important part of cutting climate change emissions.

As President Obama and Congress get closer to an agreement on regulating carbon, look for more utility CEOs and others from the fossil fuel industry in the media, positioning themselves as part of the solution to the climate problem. Which is fine - we need everyone at the table and coal is certainly going to be a part of the energy mix for years to come - but let's not forget about the proven technologies we already have in front of us: energy efficiency and renewables.

Wind power companies investing heavily in America, like Vestas, and associations like the American Wind Energy Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association had better be positioning their experts and solutions in the media as well: One fight is in Congress to get climate legislation passed, but the other is with the mainstream public to support that change; educating us that renewable energy is not "alternative" or hippie, but is already a viable and reliable industry.

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