Obama: I Will Bankrupt Any New Coal Plants

How are videos like this only surfacing now? The following video of Obama talking about coal and global warming to the San Francisco Chronicle is appearing all over the web.

The key part of the exchange is provided at Hot Air:

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 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.

This needs to be played in a continuous loop in Pennsylvania. Note the part I emphasized, above. He specifically says no to clean coal and yes to no more coal at all. This is a direct contradiction to what it says on the official Obama-Biden web site. It is no wonder Biden was confused on his own ticket's stance on this issue.

Kim Priestap links to this picture of which states have a vested interest in coal technology.


This audio/video needs to be played in those states NOW. Actually the timing of this discovery could work to McCain's advantage. If an ad came out with this information two weeks ago, the Obama camp would have had plenty of time to counter with a "that's not the clean coal story I knew" speech. If this story gains press this weekend, it will be hard for Obama to do damage control in time.

Ed Morrissey notes that the transcript is suspiciously missing from the web site of the San Francisco Chronicle.

I’d still like to get a transcript of the entire interview. I believe that the San Francisco Chronicle interviewed Obama in January of this year, but they have no transcript on their site. That seems very odd for a newspaper interview, especially one in which they’ve posted video.

It is almost as if they don't want to hurt the Obama campaign in any way...

Gateway Pundit also posts the video and makes a connection to nuclear power.

On nuclear power, Sen. Obama says he's open to expanding nuclear energy, which now provides 20% of the nation's electricity, as part of an effort to increase power sources that emit little or no carbon dioxide. But he also has said there is no future for expanded nuclear energy until the U.S. comes up with a safe, long-term solution for disposing of nuclear waste. He opposes the Bush administration's plan for storing waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

The sad thing is this is "consistent" for Obama. When he is in San Francisco and similar places, then his stance is that he will tax global warming villains into the ground. When he is in Pennsylvania, his stance is that we can work together on technologies like clean coal to everyone working.

It is as if Obama feels the media will cover for him and work to ensure that each audience doesn't hear about the comments to the other.