05 August 2008

Big Coal's Campaign of Lies

While its fuel cooks the planet, the coal industry uses its clout to dupe consumers and delay change

JEFF GOODELL
Posted Aug 07, 2008 11:08 AM

It took Congress more than three decades to consider a major initiative to ward off global warming, but only a few days to kill it. In June, the Senate rejected the Climate Security Act, which would have put America on track to slash greenhouse-gas emissions by 71 percent by 2050. The bill was specifically crafted to soften the blow to the nation's coal industry — coal generates more than a third of all carbon-dioxide pollution — by providing coal-burning power companies with $300 billion in subsidies and outright giveaways. But the lavish incentives did nothing to prevent Big Coal from going all out to defeat the measure; one industry-funded TV ad implied that if Congress passed the bill, "we may have to say goodbye to the American way of life." In the end, virtually every senator from a state where coal is mined or burned voted against the measure.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home