SocraticGadfly: Kool and the Gang now Coal and the Gang

May 15, 2008

Kool and the Gang now Coal and the Gang

How sad is it for these aging soulsters to be doing sellout songs for Big Coal? Oh, probably no sadder than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to be doing sellout pandering for Big Coal.


Oh, and doesn’t the Big Coal billboard look like one of those sex machines or a dildo or something? “Big Coal = Screwing Pennsylvania’s Air.” The clouds are courtesy Salon, as the web caption notes. Why?
Two images you also will never see in a pro-coal commercial are pictures of coal plants or smokestacks. If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then the coal industry is positively in love with the environmental movement. Blue skies with fluffy white clouds and greenery abound in pro-coal commercials.

Meanwhile, the budget for Big Coal’s leading greenwash PR group has gone from $8 mil to $45 mil in just three years.

As for cost? Besides the Greenpiece analysis that I blogged about earlier today, the New York Times says some people compare the clean-coal effort to the expense and difficulty of the Apollo project.

Oh, and the pandering bottom line? Unlike James Hanson (remember, politicians trot out scientists only when they agree with them), neither Clinton nor Obama will commit to a moratorium on coal-fired power plants.

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