Kerry pledges billions to clean up US coal technology

The Democratic presidential challenger this week released a detailed plan of how this money could be used to invest in so-called clean coal technology to help guarantee that the US will become self-reliant for energy sources, while protecting the environment.

“Coal is abundant, coal mining creates jobs and I believe that with the right investment and commitment, coal can be a much cleaner part of America’s future,” Senator Kerry stated. “We can make America stronger by investing in a balanced energy future. The industry has watched while federal investment in clean coal technology has failed to be a priority in the Bush White House. It’s time we make a commitment to our future by following through on the promise of clean coal.”

The plan would use royalties already generated by mining, and oil and gas production on federal land in order to dedicate billions of dollars to research for developing bold concepts for cleaning up coal technology.

However, President George Bush has slammed the proposition, stating that Senator Kerry’s real intentions are to destroy the coal industry, axing thousands of coal industry jobs by limiting carbon emissions.

A spokesperson for the Bush Administration said: “John Kerry says he wants to forge new ways to draw cleaner power from coal, but his record tells a different story. His votes and policies are aggressively anti-coal, and he has sided with environmental extremists who, like Kerry, view coal as a ‘dirty energy source’ that must be eradicated.”

By Jane Kettle