Laura Miller shills for ‘clean’ coal

The former Dallas mayor, who formed the Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition before leaving office, is now shilling for clean slightly less dirty coal and even trying to get Obama stimulus money for it.

As I’ve said more than once, after leaving the Dallas Observer, Laura Miller became just like one of the politicians she used to excoriate. Now, she’s moved on to become one of the special-interest insiders she used to excoriate as well.

That said, I’m not totally against either increasing the tax credit for carbon sequestered, or lowering the megawatt size of slightly less dirty coal plants that would qualify for other tax breaks.

But, the flip side is that slightly less dirty coal plants, in turn, need to offer legally binding guarantees for their sequestration and probably post bonds against that.

Do that with some clean slightly less dirty coal companies and we’ll find out just how much they believe in “clean” coal.

That said, Miller is specifically lobbying Kay Bailey Hutchison to adjust the relevant tax credits, with Miller client Summit Power waiting to build a plant in Odessa.

Hutchison probably will bite. Gives her a jobs and energy issue for the 2010 gubernatorial primary while giving her a “green” item to use with people who don’t know better in the general, if she knocks off Perry.