Trump supports 'clean coal' – but does it really have a future?

A technology to capture carbon dioxide from fossil fuel power plants has struggled to become affordable

Donald Trump has tossed around the term "clean coal" in his murky plan to boost jobs in the fossil fuel industry for months now. Most recently in a video in which the president-elect vowed to "cancel job killing restrictions on the production of shale energy and clean coal, creating many millions of high-paying jobs" during his first 100 days in the office.

What Trump meant by "clean coal" is unclear. Coal is a dirty fuel with a declining fortune. With production falling, at least half a dozen coal mining companies have filed for bankruptcy within the past two years. Technical advances in fracking have increased the production of natural gas and driven down prices, making it cheaper than coal and a more attractive source of energy for power generation. How Trump plans to beat that economic reality to promote the production of both coal and natural gas is puzzling.