Carl Pope: The Spin Room

Just how green is the new Obama team, anyway? If you read the Wall Street Journal, you might think that King Coal was back on top of the roost. The Journal did a piece this morning headed  "Coal Industry Digs Itself Out of a Hole in the Capitol." (I was interviewed for the piece and am quoted.) But the headline writer seems to have gotten out ahead of the story and the facts. The article points out that both EPA nominee Lisa Jackson and Energy Secretary designate Steven Chu described coal as a part of America's energy future, even though Chu, in particular, has been much harsher in comments he made before his appointment. It also says that in doing so Jackson and Chu were trying to "steer towards the center." But the comments Chu and Jackson made were simply restatements of President-elect Obama's positions during his campaign. Obama always agreed that coal has a future -- if it can be clean, including cleaning up its CO2. But what the Journal (and most of the media) has missed is that ... (link)