A Public Citizen study released in 2006 shows that emissions from coal plants in Texas could be reduced by 70-90 percent if modern coal gasification technologies are used.

Richard Furman, an MIT-trained scientist who has worked for three electric utilities and now volunteers for environmental groups, performed the analysis for Public Citizen. He compared the total emissions from the traditional pulverized coal plants to the emissions that would result if the same amount of power were to be produced by modern coal gasification plants.

The analysis showed that coal gasification could provide electricity for Texans with dramatically less pollution – 86 percent less NOx, 93 percent less SO2, 87 percent fewer soot or fine particles, 73 percent mercury, and 92 percent less CO2, a global warming-causing gas.

Gasification also more easily sequesters carbon dioxide, reducing the emissions of global warming gases by more than 90 percent a year.