Can coal really be clean? Either the way to get to it or when it is burned?

Coal can't be clean, but there are technologies out there that make it better to use. Along with Hydro and Nuclear, these three forms or electricity production are the cheapest. We need an energy policy that reduces emissions and makes sense. Economically, using coal would make sense, but enivormentally it wouldn't. These technologies don't make it totally environmentall friendly, but do assist them in decreasing their emissions. 

Coal is not clean. See the TVA sludge spills. We either wreck the air or the water. Neither is a good choice, and certainly not clean.

I know that it is not clean, but it provides 50% of our electricity in this country. We need to increase the use of technologies to decrease the emissions coming out of the smokestacks. 

Also, we need to regulate coal ash. That was the problem in the TVA spill. There was no oversight of a material that contains mercury among other things.

 There is no such thing as Clean Coal.  That's just a wishful marketing term.

Ultimately, coal is mined.  I'm not sure how it becomes "clean" after being exploded off the top of a mountain.  Coal mining has a high incidence of medical issues, so I'd hardly call that clean.

Burning coal releases significant radioactive material and heavy metals.  This can be helped by adding filters, but then the cost is no longer competitive with alternatives.

Gassifying coal is touted as a way to achieve clean coal, but there is only one plant in the US that gassifies coal.  The remaining coal power plants burn coal and can only be retro-fitted so much.

In terms of sequestering carbon, we don't know how to do that safely and cheaply.  Besides, carbon is only one of the many by-products of burning coal.  You also have significant sulphur dioxide and nitrous oxide in addition to the heavy metals and radiation mentioned earlier.

I would love for coal to be clean, but it just isn't.

Again, these technologies are just called "Clean" coal, but I realize the downsides of using coal. These worries still don't emliminate the fact that coal produced so much of our electricity. 

We will need to use fossil fuels for the foreseeable future.  Our goal must be to reduce our use to a sustainable level.  Attempting to sequester greenhouse gases will only concentrate the pollutants and create greater problems in the future.  In the meantime we should make fossil fuel companies and users pay the full costs of reclamation and long term environmental damage.

Clean Coal does not exist simply because all of the approached to create clean coal have been flawed from the start.  Anthracite coal is very clean except for sulfer emmissions.  Everyone's approach has been to liquefy it in one form or another.  The correct approach is to create artificial anthracite coal without sulfer.