Comments on: Obama’s coal

By: Phil A.

Phil A. — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:01:33 +0000

Taazi,

I agree with you that Obama’s support of “clean” coal is troubling, but I have a few questions about some assertions you made.

Let’s start with “In a presidential primary where climate change is barely even acknowledged, and our nemeses King Coal and Big Oil buy blocks of commercial time at every political event, I was surprised to hear Obama mention Appalachia.”

First off, climate change is very much on the table — if you’ve been to any Clinton or Obama campaign events, you’d hear the candidates talking about green jobs, building a clean energy future…etc. To be sure, the debates have been funded in part by coal interests. But when Obama mentions places like New Orleans, Appalachia and others, he’s talking about rebuilding America and uniting the country for change.

Secondly, Saying that Obama only galvanizes black voters and youth is simplifying the issue. I think we should continue to bring up the issues of justice and climate change at campaign rallies, and make sure that our voices are stronger than those of the moneyed interests.

By: Branto

Branto — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:18:55 +0000

Lots of us Back Barack, but don’t like the fact that he’s taken more than a 1/4 million in campaign contributions from coal. Last week, we started a new fundraising initiative called “Buy Back Barack” on Facebook. The goal: to replace coal’s contributions with our own. If Barack is unwilling to drop coal, we’ll ask him to give the money to the Campus Climate Challenge.

Consider donating 10 bucks and tell your friends.

By: kai

kai — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:30:55 +0000

It IS about time we inject climate change into the debate (so to speak). I’m generally not one for advocacy, but our campus has been organizing a huge letter/email-writing campaign to Obama, asking questions about his policy and citing peer-reviewed sources. Some of our writers have gotten direct responses from Obama himself. Climate change is THE issue he needs to latch on to, and as much as I disagree with Al Gore’s methods, he’s right that the work needs to start NOW and not in a year.

By: Lawrence MacDonald

Lawrence MacDonald — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 04:00:07 +0000

Thanks for this posting. You are right to be shining a light on this. I’m an Obama supporter because I believe that he uniquely has the ability to create a coalition that can overcome the vested interests, including King Coal. And the more of us who support him with small contributions, the better he will be able to stand up to these powerful vested interests.

But I’d feel a lot happier if he would come out and challenge the coal lobby (he does bash Exxon, and he gets plenty of applause on that line).

Keep up the good work!