This from our friends at the Climate Emergency Council:
A debate over energy legislation is about to take place on the floor of the U.S. Senate. Coal companies and their Senate allies are pushing hard to get billions of dollars allocated to support the production of liquid coal.
You’ve probably heard about liquid coal by now. Some members of Congress are claiming that it is the right way to move America beyond oil. However, this transportation fuel made from coal would actually double the global warming pollution coming from our cars and planes!
Who supports this? A number of Senators including none other than Senator Barack Obama. That is totally unacceptable from a Senator who, on his website, has this to say about global warming: “We need to take steps to stop catastrophic, manmade climate change. If we do not act, the consequences will be devastating for future generations, especially for the poorest global populations.”
We have drafted an open letter to Sen. Obama expressing our concern that he is pushing for such flawed and harmful legislation. Please take a moment to sign it.
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That’s right. We shouldn’t support a candidate that wants to keep burning the worst of all fuels. Regardless of his merits, coal will simply not do it.
I am diappointed to see your name on a terrible bill which will greatly worsen the climate change problem by doubling the CO2 emissions of cars and trucks. Better to spend a billion dollars on developing batteries that will make electric cars practical or developing enhanced geothermal energy. This is the power politics of big coal at it’s worst! Shame!
This is a nightmare! Big coal has so much money they can buy themselves even more even though they are ruining our planet.
Though Edwards is the candidate with the worst environmental record (37%LCV, 2003) Obama’s record on peace and the environment is terrible. Obama also voted to fund the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Dumpsite and for a bill that included nuclear bunker busters. His energy plan includes both nuclear power (ala Chernobyl and Three Mile Island) and coal (a dangerous process that puts mercury, lead and cyanide into the air people breath. I’m tired of candidates who pretend to be the opposite of what they are. I’m voting for Kucinich. Anyone who isn’t voting for Kucinich isn’t an environmentalist.
In one of Gwynne Dyer’s books, he discusses the switch from horse cavalry to guns. He included a diagram from a centuries old book claiming to show how a knight could defeat a musketeer. I honestly do not know which technologies will fully make a carbon free future (e.g., solar/wind with superconduction storage, pebble bed reactors, carbon sequestration, etc.), however energy transitions have always been difficult. Perhaps once the public knows what kind of life they want, that will help decide which manner we get rid of the carbon.
Obama has changed his mind. Check this out:
http://www.heatison.org/index.php/content/blog_entry/obama_addresses_issue_of_liquid_coal/
Give the guy some credit. Coming out against Big Coal is a pretty courageous thing for a senator from a coal state like Illinois to do.
Great article. I enjoyed reading it.
I think we need to know what our candidates stand for on the issues as well so I created a site to track presidential candidates and the first article is always the current scorecard of their political stances. Check it out. http://www.candidatepositions.com
Coal produces 51% of americas energy. And with all the unemployment u fucking people thinks its a good idea to shut them down. Hundreds of thousands of people will b out of work including me and most of my family. So while u tree hugging assholes r flipping ur light switches and sitting in ur air conditioning I’m underground with thousands of other employees making that possible.