Coal-Cap Disaster
By Lawrence Kudlow
May 29, 2008
Page 2 of 2
But the great risk is that cap-and-trade will stop these technologies dead in the water, right in their tracks. That would be a tragedy.
McCain, who favors cap-and-trade, has not yet spoken directly to the coal issue, or for that matter to the various ways that coal and natural gas can be liquefied and turned into clean fuel. But this could be an important political point for McCain.
Economist Jerry Bowyer has circulated a map of U.S. coal deposits that shows a proliferation of coal in key swing states such as Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Much has been written about Hillary Clinton's ability to attract white, culturally conservative, working-class voters who have massively rejected Barack Obama. Various polls strongly suggest that McCain can capture as much as 20 percent or even 25 percent of these votes and thereby defeat Obama in November. But the Appalachian coal people may have a hard time swallowing cap-and-trade, which in effect would cap coal, their jobs and their livelihoods.
To be sure, Obama also favors cap-and-trade, so McCain could win the vote anyway on the cultural grounds of traditional family values, religious faith, pro-war patriotism and pro-gun individualism. But unless Sen. McCain can address clean-coal development and somehow carve out allowances for it, he may have a much tougher time moving the carbon working class into his column this November.
For McCain, bad carbon economics could lead to even worse carbon politics.
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COPYRIGHT 2008 CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.
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Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, views, and/or philosophy of GOPUSA. >> Back -- Page 1 2
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