Cast & crew

Dirty Business

Video
2009
1h 29m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

YOUR RATING

DIRTY BUSINESS: "CLEAN COAL" AND THE BATTLE FOR OUR ENERGY FUTURE is a documentary that reveals the true cost of our dependence on coal for electricity, and tells the stories of innovators who are pointing the way to an alternative green energy future. Even now, in a world globally connected to the Internet, half our electricity still comes from this dirty, nineteenth century technology. Guided by Rolling Stone reporter Jeff Goodell, DIRTY BUSINESS investigates the coal lobby's $40 million dollar propaganda campaign to convince us that the technology to make coal Â‘cleanÂ’ already exists. In fact, that technology Â– called Â‘carbon capture and storageÂ’ Â– is not in commercial operation anywhere in the world, and experts say it may not happen for 15 years or more, and even then may not be economically viable.

Can coal ever really be made 'clean'? Is renewable energy ready for prime time? The film seeks answers in a series of stories: citizens fighting to build a solar power plant instead of a new coal plant in Nevada; a Kansas cowboy saving his cattle ranch with wind power; doctors tabulating the true cost of coal pollution in the damaged health of newborns in China, where a new coal plant goes up every week; innovators making a southern Rust Belt factory so energy efficient that it will steal jobs back from China.

Goodell asks: Â“If you could go behind the light switch; if you could follow the electricity back to the power plant and if you could see the coal being burned there; and if you could look at the carbon dioxide pouring out of the smokestack and warming the planet and shortening our lives; and if you could go back to the coal mines themselves, and see the mountains being blasted apart; and if you could somehow come up with a full accounting of what it really means to be dependent upon coal, would you feel the same way about electricity?Â”

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News Documentary

A documentary about the myth of clean coal. The film reveals the true, hidden environmental and social costs of the 'cheap' nineteenth century technology that still provides more than half t... Read allA documentary about the myth of clean coal. The film reveals the true, hidden environmental and social costs of the 'cheap' nineteenth century technology that still provides more than half the electricity powering today's digital age. DIRTY BUSINESS exposes Big Coal's propaganda ... Read allA documentary about the myth of clean coal. The film reveals the true, hidden environmental and social costs of the 'cheap' nineteenth century technology that still provides more than half the electricity powering today's digital age. DIRTY BUSINESS exposes Big Coal's propaganda campaign to convince the public that renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, are n... Read all