Coal Generation Technology - Smoke Screen

I'm a bit dismayed by this article on the ABC Website:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-15/clean-coal-unviable-advisor-says/3828946

This comment by Dick Wells is a smoke screen (no pun) because it fails to add in the essential point that compared to current coal fired power generation at the prices charged, and without including the social costs (the costs of preventing or cleaning up the pollution - ie. coal generation's share of global warming, which is high) in the pricing of course it is not commercially sensible to invest in clean coal technology. If social costs were included, which current governments or their possible alternates have no intention of requiring, then the cost and therefore the price of coal generated power would be much higher. Then the avoided social costs could be applied instead to technology development costs in the business case for a less dramatic change in price to the user. Any way we look at it coal generated power will cost more, either at the meter or in the externalised costs of management of the impact of global warming.

Reasonable alternative power generation technologies need to avoid the social costs. The changes in user pricing is dependent on the cost of creating the technology and brining it to market.

Governments haven't the guts to respond sensibly to these realities. Therefore they have no right to their positions of power-privilege.