All this boosterism comes as coal is trying to escape its image as a rock that brings not just energy but catastrophe: In April, 29 coal miners in West Virginia died when a mine owned by Massey Energy (MEE) exploded. A month later 21 miners died in an explosion in China, followed shortly after by a Russian mine disaster.

    And in China, where CCS was once considered one of the ways the country was going to clean its skies, the process of removing the carbon dioxide from coal-burning emissions is proving so energy-intensive that the Chinese are now having second thoughts. In February, Reuters reported that head of the climate department at the National Development and Reform Commission had called CCS installation and running-cost expenses a "fatal weakness." According to the article, the Chinese found that any power plant using CCS would spend 20% to 30% of their output just making it work.

    But even those figures are in doubt. "We don't know the exact cost or exact hurdles. We need to start with experiments," Mandil said.