WALL STREET JOURNAL
SEPTEMBER 25, 2008
Biden's Coal Slaw
The classic definition of a gaffe is when a politician accidentally
tells the truth, and specialists like Joe Biden can work wonders with
the form. On Tuesday Barack Obama's running mate blew an easy
question about coal, revealing volumes about liberal energy politics.
Working the rope line in Maumee, Ohio, the Senator was asked by an
environmentalist why he and Mr. Obama support "clean coal." "We're
not supporting clean coal," Mr. Biden responded. Then, riffing on
China's breakneck construction of new coal plants, he continued, "No
coal plants here in America. Build them, if they're going to build
them, over there."
Coal happens to be the indispensable workhorse of the U.S. power
system, providing about 50% of the country's electricity. Many
Democrats nonetheless despise coal -- because of pollution before the
era of scrubbers, but especially now because of carbon emissions. Al
Gore favors an outright moratorium on coal-fired power in the name of
climate change. Meanwhile, any scheme to tax and regulate carbon --
like the cap-and-trade program backed by Mr. Obama and John McCain --
would hit coal first and hardest, effectively banishing it from the
U.S. energy mix.
Mr. Biden, then, only stated an obvious if politically unutterable
truth. The real costs of green ambitions won't be paid by well-heeled
coastal liberals, but will fall disproportionately on the Southern
and Midwestern states that depend on coal for jobs and power. The
blue-collar voters of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and
so forth will get hurt most -- notwithstanding Mr. Biden's campaign
reinvention as the scrapper from Scranton.
As for "clean coal," the Obama campaign actually supports it. But
this too is a political bait-and-switch, perhaps explaining Mr.
Biden's confusion. In theory, clean coal would require capturing
greenhouse gas emissions, compressing them into liquid and then
pumping it underneath the earth. Even if the technology were ready
for commercial deployment tomorrow, to sequester just 25% of yearly
U.S. CO2 emissions would mean moving volumes more than twice as large
as the world's current oil pipeline system can handle. That will
require an enormous amount of money, and generations to build.
That an eminence like Mr. Biden is clueless about coal suggests how
little official Washington has thought through the consequences of
its anticarbon agenda. His blunder is also notable because it exposed
the realities that politicians prefer not to voice amid an election
campaign. Coal-state voters should be watching what their politicians
really have planned for them come January.
_________________ "Heyna!"
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