Coal welfare queens unite

Liquid coal coalition gears up to suck from the public teat 8

Mike Millikin brings word of the horrific goings-on at a recent conference on liquid coal. Witness:

[Sen. Jay] Rockefeller [D-W.Va.], after saying that "coal is the single greatest chance our country has for achieving energy independence," outlined what he described as four key elements for building the coal-to-liquids industry.
  1. Build up military uses of coal-based fuels. ...
  2. Work together to keep all those who support coal on the same page. ...
  3. Have a substantial federal government investment in the R&D for workable carbon capture and sequestration. ...
  4. Expand the pipeline infrastructure to serve the coalfields. ...
Rockefeller called for the equivalent of the Apollo and Manhattan projects to provide billions in federal funding for CTL research and development. He also stressed the need for private investments in CTL development, with tax incentives to develop coal-based fuels.

Kill me.

This coalition -- powerful politicians, Big Coal, labor unions, and all sorts of peripheral businesses lining up at the public teat -- is going to be extremely difficult to defeat.

Some folks think the better part of valor is just to give in to CTL, as long as it meets strict environmental standards. The idea is that implementation will prove financially prohibitive, so it will never happen regardless.

That kind of thinking makes me nervous. Once you've created another corporate welfare case, got tons of subsidies in place, for a technology that's managed to define itself as crucial for national security ... what politician is going to let it wither on the vine?

Better not to create Frankenstein in the first place. How to stop it? Make coal unacceptable.

Coal is the enemy of the human race. Tell your friends, neighbors, and legislators.

David Roberts is staff writer for Grist. You can follow his Twitter feed at twitter.com/drgrist.

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  1. sunflower's avatar

    sunflower Posted 4:18 am
    28 Aug 2007

    military uses of coal-based fuelsFrom the press in Africa...
    US President George W. Bush wants Tehran to halt "at once" any Iranian support for fighters targeting US-led forces in Iraq, the White House said in a statement Tuesday.
    US President George W. Bush warned Tuesday that letting Iran acquire atomic weapons risked putting the Middle East "under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust."
    Now I'm getting spooked to the point of distraction.

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  2. fotokew Posted 5:46 am
    28 Aug 2007

    Make coal unacceptable.Coal is unacceptable to anyone that has done just a little bit of research. I feel like all the enviromental groups need to pull to together to fight King Coal. There should not be any new coal and the old plants/mines should be phased out.
    Anybody want to help Mississippi fight King Coal and his merry governor? We'll give you some fried chicken!

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  3. fermiparadox Posted 6:45 am
    28 Aug 2007

    Plain madnessThis is just plain madness, and way too expensive. CTL is already expensive, add to that carbon sequestration (which isn't even mature technology yet) and it becomes unaffordable. And then it still pumps carbon dioxide through the exhaust pipes of the cars.

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  4. Delay And Deny's avatar

    Delay And Deny Posted 6:54 am
    28 Aug 2007

    Bushies Zip Past GristersWhoosh!!!
    What was that Grist?   Oh, that was George Bush driving by in his hydrogen powered funny car (SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!).
    What's that Grist?  Oh, you say we'd have to burn coal to make H?   Read it and weep:
    http://blogs.zdnet.com/green/?p=203
    The original discovery was made forty years ago by a young researcher at IBM. Now he's leading a team of researchers at Purdue who seem to be on the brink of an energy wonderland. Easy-to-produce hydrogen. Produced on site, on demand. Cheaply.



    John Bailo


    Sutext:

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  5. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 7:52 am
    28 Aug 2007

    Ouch"Coal welfare queens." That has got to sting.

    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

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  6. farnishk Posted 8:24 pm
    28 Aug 2007

    Just Needs Evidence"Coal is dirty", "Coal is polluting" etc. will not stick to these people. Simple demands will prove very effective - this is my simple demand:
    "If you [the coal industry] can categorically show that energy independence for the USA outweighs the need to dramatically cut greenhouse gas omissions - for this is the choice that wil have to be made - then coal can be the catalyst for energy independence."
    The science is clearly against any such call being answered so, in truth, it is just down to the American people to say clearly that they value the future of their planet more than jingoistic, short-sided attitudes over where the energy we so greedily suck is coming from.
    This should be taken as a conscious attack on those millions of people who have been so easily brainwashed that commercial interests outweigh everything else.
    Keith Farnish

    www.theearthblog.org

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  7. GreenEngineer Posted 3:46 am
    29 Aug 2007

    Coal welfare queensThat's a sharp, pointed bit with enough barb to stick under the skin of the free-market rhetoric.  Inasmuch as the conservative public is the most likely to be skeptical of climate change and most likely to support coal (in all its forms) as a path to domestic energy security, the most effective way to reach them may be to emphasize the many levels of subsidies involved.
    The Right spent alot of energy demonizing the welfare state.  Let's capitalize on that work, and turn it to our own ends.

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  8. Biodiversivist's avatar

    Biodiversivist Posted 5:23 am
    29 Aug 2007

    Here, here, GreenengineerHand them a gun with a U shaped barrel.

    In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world

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