Clean Coal?

With all political catch-phrases flying over the airwaves in recent months, one of the things I keep noticing is "Clean Coal." It comes up quite often with both candidates, when the topic of climate change and carbon emissions is explored. And though both candidates do have some differences in energy, they both bring up "Clean Coal" as a means to reduce our environmental footprint. Between that and the public campaign that the coal industry is engaged in, the reality of coal has been obscured. And I think that people have started to unconsciously associate "clean" coal with clean and renewable energy sources, ie, solar, wind, geothermal, etc.

The reality is that coal is NOT a sustainable solution. And it's not only the CO2 that is the problem. Carbon capture/sequestering could be useful temporary solution while we wean ourselves off of coal, but it doesn't yet exist and will take at least a decade to implement. Meanwhile, I think that promoting a focus on improved energy efficiency (for the ones using it) and meeting our future energy demands with renewable sources would better serve the environment. Is this unrealistic?

I liked this quote from the Business Week article, "Clean coal is like a healthy cigarette, It doesn't exist."

Ps, Lignite is a low grade form of coal.

I've linked a couple of sites with more information:
Business Week article, "The Dirty Truth About Clean Coal"
Wikipedia Entry on Clean Coal
Wikipedia Entry on Carbon Sequestering
Huffington Post Entry, "The Coal Truth on Candidates"