Earth Equity News

Coal Trying for Slice of Stimulus Package. By Ken Ward Jr., Charleston Gazette, January 25, 2009."Coal company officials and their supporters in Congress are working to increase the industry's already large chunk of the economic stimulus package. Lawmakers in the House set aside $2.4 billion in their current version of the legislation for research into capturing greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. Democratic leaders in the House Committee on Commerce and Energy defeated Republican efforts to also make coal eligible for a loan guarantee program for renewable energy projects. In the Senate, Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., was lobbying fellow lawmakers and President Obama behind the scenes to try to get more money for what supporters call 'clean coal' programs. 'He wants it as big as possible,' said Jamie Smith, Rockefeller's communications director. 'He's going to just keep working for more and more and more money for this.' On Friday, lawmakers and Senate staff members were negotiating their version of a stimulus package, a measure intended to help boost the sagging economy across the country. environmental groups are concerned that Congress will not put tight enough restrictions on 'clean coal' projects -- requirements that they say actually limit their greenhouse emissions and do so now rather than much later. Also, some citizen groups, especially those who oppose mountaintop removal in Appalachia, argue there is no such thing as 'clean coal,' whether greenhouse emissions are captured or not."