Coal industry bigwigs are criticizing a new ad campaign calling out clean coal technology as a farce, the Charleston Daily Mail’s George Hohmann reports.
The recently debuted environmentalist-sponsored TV spot (seen here) shows a man standing in front of a supposed state-of-the-art zero-emission coal processing plant while talking about the wonders of clean coal.
When he opens the door to the facility, however, there is nothing but a barren desert. The commercial ends with the line: “In reality, there’s no such thing as clean coal.”
The ad is the first in a campaign directly targeted at assertions made in past pro-industry commercials, such as this one.
Currently, clean coal, as defined by burning coal without releasing greenhouse gas emissions, does not exist.
The attacks on the country’s most prolific fossil fuel have some coal executives fired up.
"People are cowering away from being criticized by people that are our enemies," said Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship of coal's opponents. "Would we be upset if Osama Bin Laden was critical of us?"
Said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association: “My concern about it is, first of all I think it's so typical - what they do is throw stones but they don't offer any alternatives whatsoever for achieving energy security for America. It's as though they want us to continue to rely and depend on the Middle East for all of our energy needs.”