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Home Front: Politix
Obama Called Out for Comments About Bankrupting Coal Fired Power Plants
2008-11-03
(WSAZ) -- With only hours before election day, coal has become a major topic of Decision 2008.

Sunday, comments resurfaced from a taped interview Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama did with the San Francisco Chronicle in January. In the interview, which has been available online for months, Obama talks about the importance of coal. He went on to talk about his cap and trade proposal to help curb global warming.

"If somebody wants to build a coal power plant they can, it's just that it will bankrupt them because they are going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted," Barack Obama said to the San Francisco Chronicle in January.

The campaign for Republican presidential candidate John McCain jumped on those comments today and is already sending out taped phone messages to voters in Ohio.

Campaigning in Marietta today, McCain's running mate Sarah Palin mentioned the Obama comments. "He said that, sure, if the industry wants to build coal-fired power plants, then they can go ahead and try, he says, but they can do it only in a way that will bankrupt the coal industry, and he's comfortable letting that happen. And you got to listen to the tape," Sarah Palin said.

The Obama campaign says the quote is being taken out of context and that Obama is actually from a coal state and is a strong supporter of the industry.

The campaign sent a statement today saying "the point Obama is making is that we need a transition from coal burning power plants built with old technology to plants built with advanced technologies."
Which we don't have yet.
Posted by:Fred

#23  The press has let us down covered for The Messiah™ and screwed us over again.

Fixed that for ya', OS.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut   2008-11-03 23:02  

#22  One question - why did it take so long for this to come out?

It took a blogger.

The press has let us down again.
Posted by: OldSpook   2008-11-03 22:59  

#21  95% of Congress are idiots when you talk about energy

fixed for you
Posted by: Abu do you love   2008-11-03 22:12  

#20  Push comes to shove, it would be a real educational experience for all the coal fueled power plants to shut down. Then the nation can sweat for the day or 2 while they are brought back on line.
Posted by: ed   2008-11-03 21:44  

#19  So if the Big O bans coal burning, where in the f*ck are we going to get energy to make the transition off petroleum? 95% of Congress are idiots when you talk about energy. They do not have a clue.

Maybe they will jump on the bandwagon and push a program for vernalization for agriculture, like Stalin's TD Lysenko did to ruin the USSR's agriculture.
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2008-11-03 21:40  

#18  Blondie, that table should be times thousand tons.
Posted by: ed   2008-11-03 19:26  

#17  .5MT, where'd I do that? Got those stats from Platts. I know they don't match up exactly with Kentucky Educational Television, but the states listed are the same.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie   2008-11-03 18:34  

#16  As a not proud resident of Massaholia I suffered through Romney's governorship.

As best I could tell he's a pander bear supreme in the mode of the old Rockefeller Repus. Despite his talk he had no walk.

The problem in judging him is that the overwhelming Democrap / loony left here distorts anything. It's like trying to judge his appearance when viewed in a fun-house mirror.
Posted by: AlanC   2008-11-03 16:14  

#15  Blondie, think you may have dropped a zero or 2.
Posted by: .5MT   2008-11-03 14:18  

#14  Those insiders are mostly Mitt Romney people from what I hear.  They want to preserve his chances for 2012.
Posted by: lotp   2008-11-03 13:16  

#13  Steve White: Are you serious?

Do you think McCain was sitting on this bombshell?

My understanding is that an unknown blogger found the tape on the SF Chronicle's website, lisstened to the audio, and then put the word out on The One's intent to bankrupt the coal industry.

I have been given to understand that McCain's "opposition research team" dropped the ball on this bombshell.

Recall: weeks ago Joe Biden said that no new coal plants would be built in the USA. There was a brief hue and cry. The One came out and said: no...you're taking what Joe said out of context....blah...blah...blah...

Actually, Joe Biden was telling the truth when he spoke. The One covered his ass by saying otherwise.

THAT would have been the time to drop the SF Chronicle qoute on Barack. McCain didn't. Because he didn't have it.

Why not? Because his reasech people didn't know it existed. They should have, but they didn't.

McCain has run a terrible campaign on so many levels and now some of the "insiders" want to blame his pick of Sarah (which is the only good thing he has done in months) as an excuse for failure.

Vote. Vote Palin. Vote against socialism.
Posted by: MarkZ   2008-11-03 12:13  

#12  The scary thing is that youse guys are probably right.

I don't even wanna think about the consequences for burning Obama signs for fuel, then.
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie   2008-11-03 11:32  

#11  Anyone found burning, considering the burning or discussing the burning of cornstalks will be reported to the Obama Civilian Assistance Corps (CAC).

Ironically, the punishment for this environmental heresy will be burning at the stake.
Posted by: SteveS   2008-11-03 11:19  

#10  Blondie:

Cornstalk burning will violate the low-carbon fuel standards of the Obama regime and will be strictly prohibited. Anyone found burning, considering the burning or discussing the burning of cornstalks will be reported to the Obama Civilian Assistance Corps (CAC).

"You can burn cornstalks if you want to, but we'll tax you out of your house." anon
Posted by: Besoeker   2008-11-03 11:05  

#9  Top coal-producing states

State 2005 production (short tons)
Wyoming 404,319
West Virginia 153,650
Kentucky 119,734
Pennsylvania 67,494
Texas 45,939
Montana 40,354
Colorado 38,510
Indiana 34,457
Illinois 32,014
North Dakota 29,956
Virginia 27,743

Well, thank God none of 'em are important swing states, right, Barack????

(On a side note....if he does get in, in spite of this, I personally will have no sympathy for any coal industry personnel who are out on their butts who voted for Obama. I'll be too damn busy scrounging up cornstalks to burn for heat in the winter.)
Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie   2008-11-03 10:35  

#8  Hawai'i has one small coal-fired plant for a sugar mill that is being converted to bio-mass. He is an uneducated idiot when it comes to energy. We have the cleanest coal burning power technology in the world and that includes that bastion of fluidized bed technology - Finland. We are now able to incrementally upsize coal-gasification combined cycle to baseload numbers like 750MW. We can build super critical coal fired boilers in the 1250 to 1350 MW range with scrubbers that make natural gas more attractive for polymers than power. The man and his advisors are really dangerous. I have forgot more about designing and building power plants than he will ever know.
Posted by: Jack is Back!   2008-11-03 10:27  

#7  If McCain wins, it is only because the chosen One shot himself in the foot so often the MSM could no longer cover up the blood.
Posted by: DarthVader   2008-11-03 10:02  

#6  I'm impressed as hell that the McCain campaign held this to Sunday. If I were the candidate I would have had it out there in September or early October, and its effect would be gone now.


McCain really believes in this "don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes" ...
Posted by: Steve White   2008-11-03 10:01  

#5  Boy, Hillary looking better and better.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2008-11-03 09:57  

#4  Once again, what I said is not what you heard me say...
Posted by: tu3031   2008-11-03 09:41  

#3  Believe what he says when he's not being scripted, i.e. when he thinks he's in a safe crowd of fellow believers.

Believe what he says in San Francisco and when Joe the Plumber catches him off guard.
Posted by: lotp   2008-11-03 09:34  

#2  Hawaii is a coal producing state - I had no idea.

You know, for someone who is supposed to be so smart and articulate we sure have got a lot of these day-after clarification statements from his campaign managers, especially after his visits to San Francisco. How anyone can automatically believe anything which comes out of his mouth is the bigger mystery - you may agree with it initially but inevitably he backtracks.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2008-11-03 09:29  

#1  "the point Obama is making is that we need a transition from coal burning power plants built with old technology to plants built with advanced technologies."

Just not nuclear or natural gas. But other than that, he's cool with it.
Posted by: bigjim-ky   2008-11-03 09:11  

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