Obama to bankrupt coal

This video interview with the San Francisco Gate from back on January 17, 2008 surfaced yesterday at Naked Emperor News. In it Barack Obama says that he will use carbon regulations to "bankrupt" anyone who builds a new coal power plant.

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

Coal presently accounts for about 49% of US power production. Preventing construction of any new coal plants will only drive up the price of electricity as more expensive replacements must be implemented.

Not only that, but consider the effect these remarks may have in coal producing states like Colorado, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. These are battleground states, key states that are needed to win the election. And that's something that didn't go unnoticed today by Gov. Sarah Palin:

Palin told supporters to listen to the audiotape. “You’re going to hear Sen. Obama talk about bankrupting the coal industry,” she said. The Alaska governor also pointed to comments that Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden made to an environmental activist, promising no more coal-fired power plants in America. Biden was videotaped, likely without his knowledge.

“In an Obama-Biden administration, there would be no use for coal at all, from Wyoming to Colorado, to West Virginia and Ohio,” Palin said.

and by Senator John McCain speaking today in Pennsylvania:

"My friends, you know what Senator Obama said about a year ago, he said he had not been a, quote, coal booster," he said, as the crowd booed.

"My friends, I've been a coal booster and it's going to create jobs, and we're going to export coal to other countries and we are going to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. That's going to help restore the economy of the great state of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania."

Never mind debating about greenhouse gases. Forty-eight hours before the election and the front runner says he is going to "bankrupt" the coal industry with carbon taxes. Just what a struggling economy needs!

One in seven voters reportedly remain undecided or willing to change their votes. This might just help them make up their minds.

Update: The Coal Tango.