Coal says “Goodbye …”

The latest advertisement from the coal industry warns us that without drastic measures to embrace Clean Coal, we risk saying “Goodbye to the American way of life that we all know and love.”

Goodbye. Adios. Sayonara. Au revoir.

Coal IS Dirty!!!!!

Coal is NOT Clean.

Coal IS Dirty!

Introducing the Clean Coal Body Slam.  Kevin Grandia of DeSmogBlog has put together an amazing team with a clear (not clean) agenda:

For a while now, whenever I mentioned the term “clean coal” people would roll their eyes and groan, “clean coal,” usually followed by a rolling of the eyes or a mock gagging, eyes bulging expression. Most people know coal isn’t clean, but that hasn’t stopped the coal industry from trying to convince us otherwise.

Coal kills … Republican Politician’s Career

Let us face facts: Coal kills. Simple, straightforward, clear.

Coal has been a mainstay of the industrial economy for more than a century and provides a large share of the world’s electricity. That electricity, that contribution to the industrial economy has brought about some tremendous things. But, for the 21st century and beyond, coal is no longer the necessity it once was, other options exist. And, we now know far more about the costs of burning coal than before: acid rain, mining destruction, health impacts, mercurty pollution, and that pesky little thing called Global Warming. Coal has had its day (actually decades), but that day has past as we now know with every growing clarity: COAL KILLS.

Recent news provides another way that Coal Kills: a Republican politician’s slavish devotion to the promotion of polluting coal electricity looks to have killed his career.

Obama Message Coopted by Pollution Front Group

The Astroturf Organization Formerly Known As ABEC has come out with a doozy of a first ad.

In the battle to protect our future, the alphabet list of astroturf organizations working to undercut a habitable tomorrow is an ever-growing soup.  Tracking the  $35 million+ associated with “Americans for Balanced Energy Choices provided easily full-time employment for some dedicated people.

Perhaps, these astroturfers felt some pressure.  Recently formed, just in time for Earth Day, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.

When you hear/see that term, think Clear Skies and other Bushisms … “Clean Coal” is a euphemism for Sort-of Less Dirty Coal, Somewhat Less Polluting Coal, Supposedly Less Deadly Coal.

Coal Industry “Principles”?

The Coal Industry came a callin’, complaining that I had not adequately examined their “principles” in commenting on the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity‘s (ACCCE‘s) new advertising campaign that bears an unnerving similarity to wording from Senator Obama’s Presidential campaign and from Al Gore’s We campaign.  Their comment (complaint):

By concentrating on the name change, as you do, you glossed over the REAL news about the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity:

For the first time, we have over 40 coal-related companies agreeing to federal regulation of carbon dioxide, provided our 12 principles are met.

Is this “REAL news” or is that “provided” an opening for a subordinate clause that is dominant? 

Let’s take a look.

Dominion CEO Disconnected from Reality

“Those who seek to demonize coal or eliminate its use are, quite honestly, disconnected from reality.”  Dominion Resources CEO Thomas F Farrell, II 

What is the reality that we are disconnected from?

• The 3.5 million tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxide, 10 million tons of sulfur dioxide, 48 tons of mercury, 56 tons of arsenic, 134,000 tons of hydrochloric acid and 130 million tons of toxic-laden waste from US coal-fired electricity plants each year?
• A warming planet?  And, the quite likely possibility that we need to figure out how to reduce not our emissions, but how to reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere?
• Mountain-top removal’s devastation?

I’d ask “what planet do you live on, Tom”, but really the question is: 

What planet do you want my and your children to live in?

WE … WashPost Reporting Balanced vs Objective

Tomorrow, Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection are launching a $300 million advertising campaign to mobilize American support for serious action to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in “one of the most ambitious and costly public advocacy campaigns in U.S. history.”

One of the real challenges when it comes to press reporting on Global Warming issues is the desire for “balance” in reporting, the desire to have all sides represented.  This balance, of course, can be contrasted (balanced) by the question of objectivity, of focusing on facts.  With the first, Flat Earth society members would be quoted in any discussion of NASA programs.  With objective reporting, they wouldn’t even be in the reporter’s rolodex.  Sadly, as Al Gore highlighted in An Inconvenient Truth, “balance” is more prevalent than “objective” when it comes to Global Warming reporting, truthiness rather than truth.

With that context, let us look at the prominent Washington Post article on the We campaign, by staff reporter Juliet Eilperin.  This was (is) a relatively good article that discusses the campaign’s approach and objectives, with the desire to change the way the public thinks about Global Warming, options for moving forward, and translating this into impetus for serious Congressional action:

Dominion … the truthiness continues … forever?

Coal is a booming business, with price increases even exceeding those seen for oil. Fossil Fuels and the polluting of the atmosphere are, we can hope, burning their last embers of extravagant enthusiasm.

While coal is a booming business, it is also a business under fire, with people like Governor Sibelius standing tall in the fight against coal-plant expansions and plant after plant being canceled as, for example, the financial industry wakes up to the real risk with investing in such polluting infrastructure.  This reality seems to have a difficult time penetrating the dense barriers to reality that seem to exist in the great Commonwealth of Virginia, fostered by heavy investments in truthiness by Dominion Virginia Power.  Bit by bit, it seems, the veil shielding that truthiness is being lifted, for example in this Richmond Times Dispatch story: Utility reaches deal on plant: Dominion Va. Power loses proposed bonus for clean-burning facility.  Dominion had been pursuing a deal to have a proposed plant get a 1 percent bonus for being ready to be ‘clean’ via CCS, the regulatory body rejected that and took away the bonus. Poor Dominion VA Power.  For their aggressive pursuit of a polluting future, they will have to be satisfied with a guaranteed 12.12% profit, rather than a 13.12% profit.  Still my heart as the world’s smallest violin plays a song of mourning for Dominion Virginia Power and their serial polluting practices while the world sheds a tear.

Wear Blue …

Architecture2030, a fantastic organization, seeks to send a message come 19-22 April:  think about Nancy Reagan and Just Say No to the opiate of coal!  Send the message to all when you:

Wear BLUE for Earth Day 2008!

Coal Awareness Week … is Cool …

The engagement of truthiness coming from coal-industry mouthpieces is being taken up on many fronts.  RFK Action is undertaking Coal Awareness Week. As part of that, this includes remixing of Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC) advertising.  See here and here … If ABEC seeks to take the truth out of truthiness, RFK Action is taking the ‘iness’ out to provide us some Truth.