Coal-burning power plants have taken their lumps on pollution, but increased investment in coal gasification technology by electric utilities could dramatically reduce carbon dioxide emissions without damaging the economy, according to a new Carnegie Mellon University study.

The 75-page report, commissioned by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, says such technology combined with carbon capture and sequestration could all but eliminate carbon dioxide emissions in 50 years as new power plants are phased in.

Granger Morgan, a co-author of the report and head of CMU's Department of Engineering and Public Policy and co-director of the Electric Industry Center, said that the $250 billion electric utility industry should be required to invest 1 percent of its revenues -- more than triple what they do now -- to further develop such advanced technologies.

"The electric utilities have one of the lowest research investment rates of any industry," said Morgan. "There ought to be a federal mandate to invest more, either in research they do themselves or that they contribute to the government for such research."

Much of the research could be aimed at lowering the initial investment costs. A new power plant using coal gasification would cost about 20 percent more than a conventional coal-burning power plant.

American Electric Power of Columbus, Ohio, one of the nation's largest power producers, recently announced it will build a 600-megawatt power plant using coal gasification technology at a cost of $1 billion.

To effectively reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the coal gasification would need to be linked to carbon sequestration technology -- storing carbon dioxide so it doesn't enter the atmosphere -- that won't be viable for 15 years, said Dan Riedinger, a spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute, an association of utilities that produce more than 70 percent of the nation's electric power.

"There's a lot of interest in the industry in coal gasification because it has the potential to produce low emissions for a number of pollutants," Riedinger said. "But for carbon dioxide control it's like building half a bridge. We need sequestration technology to get us all the way there."

The CMU report, which will be presented today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., and tomorrow to congressional staffers on Capitol Hill, also says that the federal government should establish a clear, enforceable timetable for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.

Such regulation will reduce construction costs because it would allow the electric generating industry to better plan new power plant investments, Morgan said.

Such a recommendation is contrary to Bush administration policy set in 2003 that rejected controls on carbon dioxide, the chief cause of global warming. Coal-burning power plants produce about half of all the electricity generated in the United States and 38 percent of all the carbon dioxide emitted in the nation. As demand increases, so will pollution emissions.

Coal gasification is accomplished by grinding up the coal and adding oxygen, then heating the mixture to initiate a chemical reaction that produces a gas that can be burned much like natural gas. In addition to being energy efficient, the process also produces emissions that are easier to control and clean.

Although almost 80 percent of new power plant construction in the last 15 years has focused on natural gas-powered facilities, growing electricity demands and the tripling of natural gas prices have sparked new interest in coal as a power plant fuel.

There are plans to build at least 94 coal-fired power plants in 34 states with the capacity to power 62 million American homes.

Stu Dalton, director of generation at the Electric Power Research Institute, said coal gasification "is not a silver bullet" for emissions control but its development is further along than other new coal-burning technologies.

"Gasification is in the running as a favorite," Dalton said. "There is an increasing push to put our money where our mouth is on research and development. There are still unknowns and the need for large-scale regional tests of carbon capture and storage."