Obama: “Bankrupting” the coal industry
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If you think an Obama administration truly would seek comprehensive energy solutions, you haven’t been paying attention.
As we pointed out before, Biden has said he doesn’t want any coal plants in America.
Now, surfacing, is Barack Obama telling the San Francisco Gate that he would tax and fee coal plants so much, that they would go bankrupt.
OBAMA: “So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.” (Interview with San Francisco Gate – 01/17/08)
Here’s what former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore has to say about Obama’s comments:
“There is a clear difference between John McCain and Barack Obama when it comes to the issues important to voters in Southwest Virginia. Barack Obama’s recently unveiled comments about bankrupting the coal industry is only further proof that he seems to have no problem telling liberals in San Francisco one thing and voters in Southwest Virginia another. Coupled with the comments made by his running mate, Joe Biden, there is ample reason for voters of Southwest Virginia to be concerned about their economic security should Barack Obama be elected president.”
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He’s right, it seems to me that a strong cap and trade system based on carbon emissions likely would make the economic viability of traditional “dirty” coal based power generation questionble. However, it then makes more sense to invest in “clean coal” technologies like carbon capture and storage. I would be very curious to hear the rest of the interview. It’s pretty ridiculous how many of these context-missing audio snippets are popping up on youtube in a last ditch effort to play “gotcha politics” with Obama’s record.
LONDON, England (CNN) — Scientists think they have uncovered conclusive proof that human activity is responsible for rising temperatures in both polar regions.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/10/30/polar.warming/index.html
JR - I know there’s still a bunch of people out there that still believe that global warming doesn’t exsist (financed by the Oil and Coal industry) and personnally I don’t care because I don’t and won’t have any children. But for those of you that do, you might want to think about what impact coal does have on the environment.
Yes, we may end up losing jobs in the coal industry, but rising sea levels and disrupted weather pattens are going to harm a lot more people a lot more drastically than unemployment for 20 or 30 thousand coal miners.
Like I said, don’t have kids and I’m almost 50 so it don’t matter to me, but if I did I’d like my kids to have a planet worth living in.
Maybe he shouldn’t have said them then.
Fear really is all the GOP has anymore… would be nice if the Republicans actually had an idea or two.
Mark — that’s a pathetic attempt on your part…especially when you know very well that McCain has some pretty creative and exceptional policies listed on his web site to not only address some of our fundamental problems, but stem the growth of outrageous government spending.
When you look at Obama’s platform, it’s pretty obvious when just about every paragraph begins “increase funding for” what he wants to do.
But, you wouldn’t be playing the “fear” card as a defense for the indefensible if you actually could refute the statement.
Nope…he said it. His words, not mine. I don’t feel guilty posting it just because you’re trying to turn this around on me.
He’s the one claiming to bankrupt those companies providing jobs to thousands of Virginians, West Virginians, Pennsylvanians, and Ohioans.
Democrats in their liberal ivory towers just can’t seem to recognize that people’s whole lives can be turned around (or turned out) with a statement like Obama’s.
what he’s trying to say is that dirty coal should pay for the impact that it makes on the environment; If a dirty-ass plant gets built then it gets billed, which makes it unprofitable and therefore economically unfeasible to make a profitable dirty plant. What is wrong with that? We have better ways of making power than burning coal like we were in the 17th century. Nuclear power, for example, could significantly reduce our reliance on environmentally impactive energy sources, and with coal plants being taxed on their pollutive output they could become attractive investments - with the net result being that Americans and the world enjoy cleaner power. What is so bad about that?
The argument that coal workers should keep their jobs is similiar to the outcry amongst the book-copying crowd when the printing press came out; It’s time for a change, and some people aren’t going to be happy about it.
The McCain camp is misrepresenting Obama’s coal comments. In fact, McCain and Obama hold the same position on coal.
What the McCain camp is not giving you from the original tape:
Obama: “But this notion of no coal, I think, is an illusion. Because the fact of the matter is is that right now we are getting a lot of our energy from coal. And China is building a coal-powered plant once a week. So what we have to do then is figure out how can we use coal without emitting greenhouse gases and carbon.”
Obama and Biden on Clean Coal: Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology. Carbon capture and storage technologies hold enormous potential to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as we power our economy with domestically produced and secure energy. As a U.S. Senator, Obama has worked tirelessly to ensure that clean coal technology becomes commercialized. An Obama administration will provide incentives to accelerate private sector investment in commercial scale zero-carbon coal facilities. In order to maximize the speed with which we advance this critical technology, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will instruct DOE to enter into public private partnerships to develop 5 “first-of-a-kind” commercial scale coal-fired plants with carbon capture and sequestration.
Obama Passed An Amendment Supported by Biden To Add $200M For Carbon Capture And Sequestration Technology In Senate’s FY 2008 Budget. Obama was the chief sponsor of an amendment to the 2008 Senate Budget resolution that added $200 million for Function 270 (Energy) for the demonstration and monitoring of carbon capture and sequestration technology by the Department of Energy. [SA 599 to SCR 21, Agreed to by Unanimous Consent, 3/23/07]
Biden Proposed Energy Plan That Would Invest In Technologies To Use Coal More Cleanly. In 2007, Biden proposed an energy plan, “Joe Biden supports more than $50 billion in new incentives for research into: alternative fuel and energy sources, renewable energy technology, nuclear waste management and safety, and carbon capture and sequestration technologies that could allow us to use coal cleanly.” [Biden for President Press Release, 11/20/07]
Source: http://www.whptv.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=43762b42-8e1c-4ad9-9a0e-3c63383449fb
United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) International President Cecil E. Roberts issued the following statement today:
“Sen. John McCain and his running mate, Gov. Sarah Palin, have once again demonstrated that they are willing to say anything and do anything to win this election. Their latest twisting of the truth is about coal and some comments Sen. Obama made last January about the future use of coal in America.
“Here is what the McCain campaign left out of Sen. Obama’s actual words: ‘But this notion of no coal, I think, is an illusion. Because the fact of the matter is, is that right now we are getting a lot of our energy from coal. And China is building a coal-powered plant once a week. So what we have to do then is figure out how can we use coal without emitting greenhouse gases and carbon. And how can we sequester that carbon and capture it.’
“Sen. Obama has been consistent with that message not just in the coalfields, but everywhere else he goes as well. Despite what the McCain campaign and some far right-wing blogs would have Americans believe, Sen. Obama has been and remains a tremendous supporter of coal and the future of coal.
“I noted that Sen. McCain even went so far yesterday as to say he has always been a supporter of coal. I wonder, then, how he can justify his statement at a Senate hearing in 2000 that, ‘In a perfect world we would like to transition away from coal entirely,’ and his leading role in sponsoring legislation in 2003 that would have wiped out 78 percent of all coal production in America?
“Fortunately, UMWA members, their families and their friends and neighbors in the coalfields know all too well what is going on here. They’re not going to fall for it, and we urge others throughout America who care about coal to review what the candidates’ records on coal actually are. We are confident that once they do, and once they see the many other benefits to working families of voting for Sen. Obama, they will make the right choice for themselves and their families
source: http://www.umwa.org/index.php?q=news/mccain-campaign%E2%80%99s-last-minute-distortion-obama%E2%80%99s-coal-record-act-desperation