Well-financed lobbying campaign sells 'clean coal'

John McCain and Barack Obama "are competing over who will do more to support clean-coal initiatives" that would capture greehouse gases from coal-burning power plants, thanks in part to a well-financed lobbying campaign by companies that mine coal, railroads that haul it and utilities that burn it, Stephen Power reports in The Wall Street Journal.

The interests are allied under the banner of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, which "has spent nearly $40 million on television and radio spots and other outreach efforts to bolster public support for coal, and to reinforce fears that limits on its use will raise living costs," Power writes. The group also spent $1.7 million to have a high profile at the national party conventions, and uses volunteers to encourage people to ask candidates about their stance toward coal.

When Obama running mate Joe Biden told an Ohio environmentalist last month that they wouldn't support clean-coal technology in the U.S., ACCCE President Steve Miller called Biden's office. The next day, the campaign said it was committed "to creating jobs and energy independence through clean coal" and announced creation of a "Clean Coal Jobs Task Force . . . composed of Democratic officeholders from coal-abundant states," Power reports. (Read more)

Miller is a Kentuckian who ran the campaign of Democratic Gov. Brereton Jones in 1991. He is from Owen County, on the lower reach of the Kentucky River. Across the river in Henry County is Wendell Berry, who joined other authors in criticizing the coal industry at the closing session of the Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Roanoke yesterday. Their focus was mountaintop-removal coal mining, which one said would increase if clean-coal technology is commercialized. "If we ever have clean coal, you can kiss the mountains goodbye," said Denise Giardina, who lives in McDowell County southern West Virginia, hotbed of mountaintop mining.