Editorial: Dems go off the deep end on coal

In the U.S., the coal industry has gotten some heat of late from high-profile Democrats who have fallen sway to the global warming hoax.

Speaking at a Clinton Global Initiative event with Bono and others in New York City, Al Gore stepped deeper into the depravity with new marching orders for his acolytes: “If you’re a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration.”

For good measure, he added that “clean coal does not exist.”

We’d love to hear Gore’s personal plans for carrying out civil disobedience at coal plants in China, which is building 250% of America’s entire coal-power capacity in the next eight years.

Meanwhile vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden told a woman attending a campaign rally that “we’re not supporting clean coal,” and that there should be “no coal plants here in America. . . if they are going to build them over there, make them clean, because they are killing you.”

We’re no experts in U.S. politics, but it seems a lousy way to win votes in the key coal-producing swing-state of Pennsylvania, among others.

Coal power now provides about half of America’s electrical needs, but more than 60 planned coal-fired power plants have been cancelled in the past year owing to opposition from environmentalists.

When it comes to U.S. energy policy, sometimes we wonder if the Dems are cynically preying on ignorance in the electorate or are truly ignorant themselves.

There’s no confusion, however, which of the two camps Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi sits in.

In an August appearance on Meet the Press, she said three times that she was in favour of natural gas as an alternative energy source to fossil fuels – stunningly ignorant of the simple fact that natural gas is a fossil fuel, and there needs to be drilling to tap into it.

Said Pelosi: “I’m — I’m investing in something I believe in. I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels… The fact is, the supply of natural gas is so big, and you do need a transition if you’re going to go from fossil fuels, as you say, you can’t do it overnight, but you must transition… These investments in wind, in solar and biofuels and focus on natural gas, these are the real alternatives.”

It’s pretty shocking stuff coming from a supposedly serious national leader, especially considering that America’s energy policies are front and centre during the current U.S. elections.