Coal Industry Digs Itself Out of a Hole in the Capitol (WSJ)

[bananas]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123198153797183981.html

JANUARY 15, 2009, 9:11 A.M. ET
Coal Industry Digs Itself Out of a Hole in the Capitol
Support From EPA, Energy Nominees Signals Obama Team Headed Toward Center on Matter of Fossil Fuels and Carbon Emissions
By STEPHEN POWER and SIOBHAN HUGHES

WASHINGTON -- Big Coal is on a roll in the nation's capital, winning early rounds this week in what promises to be a long fight over fossil fuels and climate change.

Despite a well-funded ad campaign by environmentalists attacking the industry, and a huge coal-ash spill in Tennessee that has led to calls for more regulation, the industry has received positive assurances this week from President-elect Barack Obama's nominees that the new administration is committed to keeping coal a big part of the nation's energy source.

On Wednesday, Mr. Obama's choice to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Lisa Jackson, described coal to a Senate panel as "a vital resource" for the country. A day earlier, Mr. Obama's nominee to run the Energy Department, physicist Steven Chu, referred to coal as a "great natural resource." Two years ago, he called the expansion of coal-fired power plants his "worst nightmare."

The comments indicated the new administration is trying to steer toward the center in the debate over the costs associated with curbing fossil fuels and the greenhouse gases they produce.

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[Kdillard]

1. I will wait and see but that is disappointing to hear at the

moment.

[HillbillyBob]

3. I hear you. I am from WV , what I see each time I go home

makes me sick at heart. I am too old to jump up and down and scream bloody murder about the destruction of mountains that have been there longer than humans have been on Earth, one of the most beautiful of Nature or God or the Goddess' creations being annihilated for the greed and profit of a few.
If I jump up and down I might break a hip!
They steal from our people. I cannot live there as there were not jobs and now I cannot live there as there is no health care.
The greedy slobs rpigs steal and steal and leave nothing and then say it is is the poor peoples fault they are poor, when the very land is what made them rich in spirit and beauty. The spineless cowardly dems just take campaign bribes and let it go on.
They claim to be Christian ....
I can't say anymore as this upsets me to no end.
My Grandmother, rest her used to tell me of the beauty of the land where she grew up around near Bluefield where she grew up and just cry.
The bullshit lies they tell of re-contouring is more like a moonscape golf course with poisoned land and water around and under it.

[OneBlueSky]

2. did Obama listen when he met with Al Gore? . . . I wonder . . . n/t

.

[kristopher]

4. The WSJ eh?

They are probably writing this while they unload their stock in coal and coal heavy funds. Yes, we will continue to use coal; but no longer than it takes to deploy replacement technology.

[Kolesar]

5. WSJ is required to print this propaganda just to shore up the dispirited RW idealogues...eom