West Virginia, Mountain Drama

Clinton and Obama boost coal in West Virginia

Posted at 2:03 PM on 21 Mar 2008

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both did some coal-boosting while campaigning in West Virginia this week. Clinton told West Virginians she's always been in favor of "the cleanest coal possible," but that "coal fits in very importantly" to America's energy future. Asked about mountaintop-removal mining in a radio interview Wednesday, she hedged, saying she didn't "know enough to have an independent opinion" but considered it a "trade-off" between "economic necessities and environmental damage." (By the by, coal jobs have dropped 80 percent in the past half-century while coal production has increased. And the environmental damage is significant.) Obama has spoken out against mountaintop-removal mining, but still spent his West Virginia time stumping for "clean" coal, expressing a wish to create "up to 5 million new green jobs ... including new clean coal jobs." When coal jobs are green jobs, we don't know what the world has come to.

sources: The Register-Herald, The State Journal, Common Dreams
see also, in Gristmill: Clinton's mountaintop-removal mining comments spark outrage

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Comments: (2 comments)

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Get Out The Microscope

This is another of the many examples of why there is so little significant difference between the moneyed candidates. "Clean coal"? People who say that should have to work in the coal mines for awhile and be directly subjected to all the other harms that coal mining does. At least Obama is opposed to mountaintop mining, which is the current epitome of human disregard and/or hatred for the natural world, which is why he's the least offensive of the three moneyed candidates. But we're never going to get any meaningful change unless we can elect someone, like Dennis Kucinich, who is willing to take on those with power and money and fight for the Earth and average people. Candidates who raise massive amounts of money from those who have it will never make the necessary changes.

by Wolverine at 10:35 AM on 22 Mar 2008

Lame Democrats

Can anyone believe this is the best we can get out of our lame Democratic candidates for president DURING THE PRIMARY! I mean, the primary is when they're supposed to put forth their most progressive agenda to duke it out for support from Democrats -- not industry.

We all know that when the primary is over the winner will sashay to the right, move to the middle, become more "centrist" to pick up the mysterious "swing voters" that can carry the day.

But not the Democrats -- oh no. Despite the fact they are following the most disastrous, disliked, and dishonest president in history, are they staking out positions that could possibly save the world for future generations? No, they are not. Instead, they are parroting the energy industry mantra of "more coal."

Perhaps Hillary and Obama will fly over the wasteland of strip mines in Southeastern Montana on their way here for their joint April 5th appearance in Butte. If so, it would be good to have each of them tell us exactly how they intend to produce the mythological energy source known as "clean coal." After 30 years of mining, only 2 percent of Montana's coal mines have been fully reclaimed. In the meantime, coalbed methane extraction is draining the aquifers, dumping salty water on the land, and dooming sustainable ranches and farms to a bleak future. Coal, as it happens, is a major water-bearing geological strata here in Montana and when they interrupt it by mining, they disrupt the entire hydrological system. We know, we're living with it and have been for years.

When candidates like Hillary and Obama, who are supposed to be so "progressive," start pimping for Peabody, it only reaffirms the stark reality that Congress is a wholly-owned subsidiary of big energy and will swallow the industry rap hook, line and sinker while leaving the rest of us gasping for air.

by Montana Green at 2:12 PM on 24 Mar 2008

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