Obama’s Vision for Bankrupting Coal Power Plants

P.J. Gladnick reported today on NewsBusters that the San Francisco Chronicle failed to mention that Barack Obama had told them on January 17, 2008 that he was willing to bankrupt the coal industry. Here’s a transcript of Obama’s statements (emphasis added):

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

The only thing I’ve said with respect to coal, I haven’t been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a (sic) ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.

It’s just that it will bankrupt them.

Listen for yourself. Hear Obama say under his plan building coal-powered plants will bankrupt the builders:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdi4onAQBWQ[/youtube]

Senator Obama is basically promising to put an entire American industry out of business. I guess you could argue he is talking about killing it slowly each year but the effect is the same. Remember that 49% of the nation’s electricity comes from coal-powered plants. This notion of his is staggeringly dangerous and extremely arrogant, especially when we don’t have enough energy production as things are now.

Also, watch Obama’s May 14, 2007 statements on this subject. He admits it will raise power bills.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfxhbwp1Vx4[/youtube]