Now I will be the first to admit that something has to be done about the byproducts of coal, namely the carbon impact. Just as there are all sorts of great solutions for storing the CO2 (in mines for instance), there are excellent applications for coal freeing the United States from dependence on foreign oil.
Sadly, Barack Obama disagrees , and does it in such a way that the future of Appalachia’s coal industry would be jeopardized:
The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a (sic) ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.
So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.
It’s just that it will bankrupt them.
This isn’t even an argument for clean coal. Obama is opposed to coal, period.
Bummer for the coal miners of Southwest Virginia, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia…