Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Coal

It wasn't long ago that Joe Biden made the news appearing to contradict Barack Obama's stance on clean coal and I see this morning, via Gateway Pundit and NewsBusters, that there is an audio that has been released where Barack Obama tells the San Francisco Chronicle (SF Gate) he is willing to see the coal industry go bankrupt.

YouTube URL here and video below:



Text:

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.

Looks like Biden wasn't contradicting Obama at all when his words were reported and shown on video.

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