CSS: "clean coal" technology or political way station?

The West – mainly Montana, Wyoming and Utah – has plenty of coal, and coal interests have plenty of clout.

Then there's this from the EPA and DOE: 

Clean coal' (meaning the kind that's theoretically possible if the federal government subsidizes sequestration development and when carbon dioxide is somehow injected into the ground via those as-yet-unproven technologies after the coal is burned) boom not possible without carbon pricing.

Aaah, the political maneuvering.