Bush-Enron Energy Plan: Pretzel LogicPhotos and story by Vivian Stockman On Tuesday dozens of representatives of state enviro groups assembled along Bush's motorcade route to protest the proposed Bush-Enron energy policy. That policy subsidizes (in $Billions) the "Clean Coal" lie and has grave ramifications for West Virginia's still-standing coal-bearing mountains. We picketers represented our groups' members, AS WELL AS THE NINE OUT OF TEN AMERICANS WHO FAVOR ALTERNATIVE ENERGY METHODS TO SOLVE SHORTAGES. (Nov. 27, 2001 Gallup Poll). An Energy Task Force made up of political donors and/or business execs wrote the energy plan during closed-door meetings. The plan smells so bad, the General Accounting Office has demanded to see the meetings' records. VP Dick Cheney won't hand those over, and the GAO is considering suing the Bush administration. Apparently believing that Americans are so ga-ga over his War on Terrorism he can get away with anything, Bush says his energy policy is all about National Security and Jobs. But, his visit was obviously a taxpayer funded cheerleading session for Coal and Capito, at taxpayer expense. The costs for all the security surrounding his visit must be huge. His motorcade is so long, so full of gas-guzzlers, we could surely cut our dependence on foreign oil, thus boosting National Security, if he would only stay home. Did Bush advisors study at the Orwell U? Jobs? Decades ago, there were over 100,000 miners. Now there are about 16,000, despite record coal production. Bush exceedingly inflates the job numbers that would come from drilling for oil in ANWR. National Security? Plu-eeze. What's secure about tearing down the mountains, fouling the air and water, pumping mercury into the air and ultimately into our bodies? "Clean Coal?" Read my lips: There is no such thing as clean coal. From extraction (mountaintop removal, black lung, acid mine drainage, abandoned mine lines, longwall mining, etc.), to processing (coal dust, sludge impoundments), to transportation (coal dust, dangerous overweight coal trucks and damaged infrastructure), to burning (global warming, acid rain, rising asthma rates, increasing learning disabilities), to disposal of the ash (even if "Clean Coal" technologies do manage to remove some of the coal combustion pollutants from the air, what happens to the pollutant-laden ash-it eventually makes its way into groundwater), there is no such thing as "Clean Coal." It's likely the Prez didn't even see us picketers as his motorcade passed. Two limos broke out of the motorcade line, practically buzzed us, keeping the presidents limo on the inside, shielding him from DANGER: A different point of view. No matter. The Bush-Enron plan is a plan to keep Fat Cats' wallets fat, at great peril to current and future generations. The Bush-Enron energy plan is in for a battle. Though the House has passed an ecocidal plan, Senate Democrats are balking. Perhaps they recognize that the rest of the world is galloping towards that new energy economy, embracing cleaner alternative energy in a big way. Perhaps the Senate can craft an energy policy that's a type of Marshall Plan for alternative energy, with it's true promise of jobs, tax revenue, revitalized local economies. An energy policy that let's us keep the lights on and keep the mountains-what a concept! Governor Wise's own Energy Task Force can come up with a similar energy plan-one that recognizes the true toll from Coal, begins to wean our state off coal, and moves us into the new energy economy.
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