CC
They are worse pinheads than one would suppose. The end product of petroleum refining is coke; a marketable product with many uses. Petroleum coke is 99% pure carbon! So the 'higher levels of carbon' in the Alberta tar sands produces more coke; so what! It is cheaper than and generally safer than coal!
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Petroleum coke and the coal industry:
Petroleum coke has made significant inroads into the steam coal industry over the last few years and will continue to do so for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is that petcoke can serve as an excellent, inexpensive product to blend with coal in traditional coal fired boilers, and, in some newer boilers, can even replace coal entirely .
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Interesting article about a PETCOKE fired 600MW generating plant.
"...The key design strategy for Madison Unit 3 was fuel flexibility; the plant was not to be forever dependent on a single fuel, as with past plant designs. A fuel sourcing study found that petroleum coke, a solid residue by-product of the crude oil refining processes, is abundant and readily available in the Gulf Coast region, so it became the chosen fuel because of its quality, relative inexpensiveness, and plentiful supply.
Petcoke may be literally the “the bottom of the barrel” of the refining process, but it is a residue that is high in carbon content and low in hydrogen. Also, petcoke is almost free of ash—a definite advantage over western coals and lignite, which can contain more than 12% ash...."
Cleco’s Madison Unit 3 Uses CFB Technology to Burn Petcoke and Balance the Fleet’s Fuel Portfolio
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So these morons are wringing their hands and whining about NOTHING! The carbon is removed during the refining process and put to other uses. Duh!