60 minutes Preview The Dilemma Over Coal Generated Power

Energy CEO Jim Rogers wants to substantially reduce his plants' carbon footprint by 2050. But NASA climatologist Jim Hanson says we only have 20 years to make that achievement.


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Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, knows that to help stop global warming he'll have to do something about the 100 million tons of carbon dioxide that his coal-fired power plants emit each year. But right now, he's building two more, because job one is to keep power flowing to his customers, and removing the carbon dioxide is out of the question, at least for many years to come.

Rogers speaks to 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley for a report on America's dependence on coal - the dirtiest fuel and biggest contributor to global warming - to be broadcast this Sunday, April 26, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Jim Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist, says coal is the greatest threat to the planet, requiring immediate action."We are going to have to have a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants within the next few years and phase out the existing ones over the next 20 years…to preserve the climate like the one that has existed the last several thousand years," he tells Pelley.

But Rogers says a moratorium is not practical. "Mr. Hansen, can't get done, won't get done," responds Rogers. "We've got to keep our economy going… To do what you ask me to do now is just not doable," he says. "We can't abandon coal," he says of America's most abundant and inexpensive fossil fuel. "We have to find a way to keep it and use it in the future and that means the ability to clean it up," he tells Pelley.

Rogers says he has big plans to make his company carbon free - but it'll take at least 40 years. To help get there, says Rogers, his coal plants will have to use a new technology called carbon capture and storage, which turns the carbon dioxide into liquid and pumps it deep underground.

The problem is there are hundreds of coal-burning power plants in the U.S. alone: each would need to capture and store its carbon - and each would cost billions to build. In addition, the world's energy systems will need to be retooled. "We can do that, but it's going to take trillions of dollars to do it," Rogers says.