Byline: Laurie Goering and David Greising

Oct. 10--LATROBE VALLEY, Australia -- Beneath the rolling green hills of Australia's Latrobe Valley lies a deposit of brown coal so enormous it seems almost endless. After nearly a century of mining, more than 95 percent of the 35-mile-long, 600-foot-deep coal seam is still in place, ready to fuel Australia's energy needs for generations.

But burning brown coal produces vast amounts of carbon dioxide, the major culprit in global warming. So Australia is trying out an ambitious idea: capturing carbon dioxide emissions and pumping them into storage in natural reservoirs below ground.

Carbon storage has been experimented with ...