"Clean coal" is not an actual invention, a physical thing – it is an advertising slogan. Like "fat-free donuts" or "interest-free loans."

Several years ago, in Gillette, Wyoming, I fell into a long conversation with the vice-president of alarge American coal company about coal's public image problem. Gillette is inthe center of the Powder River Basin, the epicenter of the coal boom in America, where 60 foot seams of coal lay just below the surface.

We should be saying adios, and goodbye to these latest "clean coal" television ads.

A few days ago, the ACCCE released a new, stunningly vague advertisement called "Adios," that is somehow supposed to put America's mind at ease, and/or scare us about a future without coal. Here's the video, and the text:

Ever wonder why you are suddenly hearing so much about clean coal? The answer is alarming.

Clean coal is more than an oxymoron, its propaganda!

If the "clean coal" advertising on CNN wasn't enough, the coal industry is now going hard after the Leiberman-Warner Climate Security Act.

For too long the idea of clean coal has gone unchallenged.

A lot of people have received an email from yours truly over the last four months with the subject line: "Clean Coal Body Slam." I thought it explained the intentions of this project very well.

The bottom line is that Carbon Capture and Storage is not ready for prime time

Well they’re at it again.

The coal industry has found yet another way to greenwash coal as an environmentally sound source of electricity through a concept called, “Carbon Capture and Storage” (or Sequestration), CCS.

With the imaginary vocabulary of "clean coal," too many Democrats and Republicans, as well as a surprising number of environmentalists, have forgotten the dirty realities of extracting coal from the earth.

Pummeled by warnings that global warming is triggering the apocalypse, Americans have fallen for the ruse of futuristic science that is clean coal. And in the meantime, swaths of the country are being destroyed before our eyes.

This is an excerpt from a great new documentary by David Novack called Burning the Future: Coal in America.

The U.S. produces about 25 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels.

This is an excerpt from a great new documentary by David Novack called Burning the Future: Coal in America.

People all over America are standing up to the coal industry and saying "enough is enough!" Coal is bad for our health, our environment and our economy.