Word: coal
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...prize in Cheney's energy sweepstakes will go to a resource of which America has a 250-year supply and a nasty history: coal. Last week Cheney aides summoned its champions to a White House auditorium to give them the good news. There were West Virginia coal baron James (Buck) Harless, who raised at least $100,000 as a Bush "Pioneer"; Stephen Addington, president of Kentucky-based AEI Resources, whose executives gave more than $600,000 to Republicans last election; and lobbyists for Peabody Energy, the biggest digger in the country, whose chairman gave the Republican Party more than...
...Certainly coal has some positives. It is plentiful, accessible and cheaper to transport than gas or oil. Despite those benefits, coal was orphaned by the Clinton Administration as a sooty legacy of the Industrial Revolution, responsible for everything from acid rain to increasing incidence of asthma. And because of the high costs of pollution controls on coal-fired plants, utilities have turned to cleaner-burning natural gas for 90% of new plants. But by Cheney's estimate, the country will need at least 1,300 new electric-power plants over the next 20 years. And coal, which already generates more...
...Cheney insists that "good politics is a sound energy policy." But coal has political energy that other fuels can't match. It's plentiful in the political-battleground states of the Midwest and Southeast. West Virginia, the capital of coal, provided Bush his margin of victory in electoral votes and marked a G.O.P. breakthrough. Sources tell TIME that White House political director Ken Mehlman cited Bush's victory in that Democratic presidential stronghold as a reason why he should renounce a campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide, a major coal pollutant. "The current political climate is the best...
...Task-force sources say coal-fired electric utilities are likely to get an easing of environmental rules for modified plants, a change that would be worth a fortune in new coal consumption. The industry has already reaped benefits from the Bush team, with executives named to key jobs at Commerce, Interior and other departments. Coal representatives helped man Bush transition teams, putting them in position to lobby against CO2 controls from the inside. Just before the President flip-flopped on the greenhouse gas in March, he visited West Virginia and pledged that he would "convince many in the country...
...Among those who need convincing are environmentalists. They view the Administration plans to spend $2 billion on "clean coal technology" as a wasteful subsidy to an industry that has long dodged pollution controls. Harmful emissions have been reduced 70% since 1970, but critics argue there has been no cut in CO2 emissions, a major culprit in global warming...