Ohio
Palin: Obama Intends to Bankrupt Coal
It’s exactly what will happen if cap and trade is imposed without some exception for the coal industry. And if there are exceptions… what was the point again? Anyway
Seizing on a newly released audio tape picked up by the Drudge Report, Sarah Palin took the opportunity here in coal country to accuse Barack Obama of “talking about bankrupting the coal industry.”“He said that, sure, if the industry wants to build coal-fired power plants, then they can go ahead and try, he says, but they can do it only in a way that will bankrupt the coal industry, and he’s comfortable letting that happen,” Palin said. “And you got to listen to the tape.”
The audiotape Palin was referring to was recorded by the San Francisco Chronicle in a Jan. 17 interview.
“Why is the audiotape just now surfacing?” Palin asked, leading someone in the crowd to shout, “Liberal media!”
“This interview was given to San Francisco folks many, many months ago,” Palin said. “You should have known about this, so that you would have better decision-making information as you go into the voting booth.”
In the audiotape, Obama reiterated his call for a cap and trade system on carbon and greenhouse gases.
“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can,” Obama said. “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.”
An Obama spokesperson said that Obama’s remarks were taken out of context and pointed out that in another part of the interview, Obama said that the idea of eliminating coal plants was “an illusion.”
“The point Obama is making is that we need to transition from coal burning power plants built with old technology to plants built with advanced technologies–and that is exactly the action that will be incentivized under a cap and trade program,” the spokesperson said. “We know that additional work is necessary to develop and deploy these technologies. That is why Obama has argued for a robust funding program for carbon capture and sequestration. It’s strikingly similar to what McCain has said (in fact McCain goes a step further saying he wants to transition completely away from coal).”
OK, if this was just an innocent mistake… Why did the San Francisco Chronicle not publish that portion of the interview and report it? Hmmmmm….
In connection with its interview (the one from which the audio
almost certainly came), the Chronicle published almost 2,500 words on January 18
(link is to ProQuest Library file saved at my web host for fair use and
discussion purposes). 1,300 went to its primary article, and roughly
1,200 went to an “In His Own Words” segment. None of the verbiage in
the audio is in the Chronicle’s coverage. Lots of other verbiage that
is much less newsworthy is.What’s more, during the energy debates of July and August, when,
among other things, Harry Reid was telling us that “coal is making us
sick,” reporters Carla Marinucci and Joe Garofoli, who wrote the
January 17 items, “somehow” forgot Obama’s aggressive anti-fossil fuels
statements in the January interview. Real journalists would have
remembered –and reported.
Tags: coal Discussion
4 comments for “Palin: Obama Intends to Bankrupt Coal”
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So how is Obama’s cap and trade proposal different from McCain-Palin’s?
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/da151a1c-733a-4dc1-9cd3-f9ca5caba1de.htm
I’m thinkin’ they aren’t that different.
PUMA + COALGATE = OBAMA RIP
Can we drop the -gate suffix on everything please? This is hardly scandalous. What’s odd is why Palin is saying this when her own ticket supports the same policy.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 3 /PRNewswire–USNewswire/ — Mike Carey, president of the Ohio Coal Association (OCA), today issued the following statement in response to just-released remarks from Senator Barack Obama about the nation’s coal industry.
“Regardless of the timing or method of the release of these remarks, the message from the Democratic candidate for President could not be clearer: the Obama-Biden ticket spells disaster for America’s coal industry and the tens of thousands of Americans who work in it.
“These undisputed, audio-taped remarks, which include comments from Senator Obama like ‘I haven’t been some coal booster’ and ‘if they want to build [coal plants], they can, but it will bankrupt them’ are extraordinarily misguided.
“It’s evident that this campaign has been pandering in states like Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana and Pennsylvania to attempt to generate votes from coal supporters, while keeping his true agenda hidden from the state’s voters.
“Senator Obama has revealed himself to be nothing more than a short- sighted, inexperienced politician willing to say anything to get a vote. But today, the nation’s coal industry and those who support it have a better understanding of his true mission, to ‘bankrupt’ our industry, put tens of thousands out of work and cause unprecedented increases in electricity prices.
“In addition to providing an affordable, reliable source of low-cost electricity, domestic coal holds the key to our nation’s long-term energy security - a goal that cannot be overlooked during this time of international instability and economic uncertainty.
“Few policy areas are more important to our economic future than energy issues. As voters head to the polls tomorrow, it is essential they remember that access to reliable, affordable, domestic energy supplies is essential to economic growth and stability.”
The Ohio Coal Association (OCA) is a non-profit trade association representing the interests of Ohio’s underground and surface coal mining producers. The OCA represents nearly 40 coal producing companies and more than 50 Associate Members, which include suppliers and consultants to the mining industry, coal sales agents and brokers and allied industries. The Ohio Coal Association is committed to advancing the development and utilization of Ohio coal as an abundant, economic and environmentally sound energy source.