Video: How clean is clean coal?

Big Stone II, a proposed coal-fired power plant located on the headwaters of the Minnesota River faces an uncertain future after a recent Public Utilities Commission hearing. With Minnesota’s aggressive commitment to clean energy, many are questioning the wisdom of using fossil fuels to power us into the future.

"Clean coal," a traditional fuel source that relies new technologies to reduce carbon emissions, is getting the hard-sell in Washington D.C. and on the campaign trail. Incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., advocates for "clean coal," as an energy solution. Coleman’s opponent, the recently DFL endorsed Al Franken, is a less vocal supporter of clean coal but did tell the Bemidji Pioneer that, "the idea of coal gasification where you can sequester the CO2 is a technology that we ought to develop."

The American News Project and The Washington Independent, a Minnesota Independent sister site, investigated the controversial practice of coal-ash dumping in Pennsylvania coal-country in order to answer the question: how clean is "clean coal?"