It's been a rough year for Big Coal -- from forged letters to falsely presenting stock photos as friends of coal to pouring tens of millions of dollars into lobbying & tens of millions more into advertising in an attempt to stop clean energy & climate action.
But until today, there's never been a hearing like this -- calling together four top coal company chief executives to testify on The Role of Coal in a New Energy Age before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence & Global Warming.
The National Wildlife Federation is liveblogging the hearing here & you can watch it online at the committee's website. Join the conversation in comments & we'll be keeping an eye on #coal on Twitter!
UPDATE 11:46am - Rep. Markey closes the hearing by pleading with the coal CEOs to join efforts in the Senate to pass a climate bill, not obstruct them.
11:46am - Rep. Markey closes the hearing by pleading with the coal CEOs to join efforts in the Senate to pass a climate bill, not obstruct them.
11:45am - From Twitter ... @kate_sheppard: Markey: Price of #coal has gone up 60 percent in last 5 years w/o price on carbon.
11:41am - Wanted to single out something Rep. Shelley Capito (R-WV) just said. Rep. Capito suggested that coal-fired power from which the carbon emissions are captured should be considered renewable energy under a national renewable energy standard. Calling coal-fired power "renewable energy" would render the term absolutely meaningless. You really have to wonder if there's anything some friends of coal wouldn't say to keep America hooked on dirty fuels.
11:31am - "It's not like anyone's turning down" the ACES Act's $60 billion in subsidies for the coal industry ... says Rep. Capito, who voted against it.
11:30am - Rep. Capito: "We're basically seeing these agencies conducting an anti-war agenda. Er, anti-coal agenda." Don't want to mix your crazy metaphors there.
11:24am - Rep. Markey tells the coal CEOs, "You're basically mirroring the path that the auto industry took." Denial, refusal to participate in efforts to help with the transition, then blaming those who were trying to help.
By the way, there is good news out of the Senate today on a clean energy & climate bill. Check out Darren Samuelsohn's article.
11:19am - The coal CEOs embrace The Big Lie that the U.S. cutting its carbon pollution would have a "negligible" effect on global warming. But that doesn't even pass the sniff test. The U.S. emits nearly a quarter of the world's carbon pollution. Cutting it 80% would have no effect? But Preston Chiaro, chief executive for energy & minerals for Rio Tinto, points out China isn't sitting around waiting for the U.S. to act -- they're already passing us on investments in clean energy.
The message is clear: The Senate's continuing failure to act on clean energy legislation is putting America's leadership role in the world at risk.
11:12am - While coal CEOs are trying to send climate science back to the drawing board, there's new evidence today on global warming's impact on our everyday lives. Check out the National Wildlife Federation's new report on Extreme Allergies & Global Warming.
11:03am - The coal CEOs say they think we need to reduce emissions & are working on it, but we can't do pollution limits yet ... maybe once we have CCS ready, THEN we can do limits. Rep. Inslee: You're telling us, when they stop robbing banks, then we'll make it illegal.
10:58am - Rep. Inslee objects to Mike Carey's comment that President Obama & Congressional Democrats are "waging a war on coal." Rep. Inslee says when he thinks about threats to coral reefs, Glacier National Park & the Pacific Northwest's salmon, he thinks about how these drastic changes could occur during his own grandson's lifetime thanks to carbon emissions from coal. "If there's a war being waged here, it's a war on our grandkids."
10:48am - Peabody Energy President & CEO Gregory Boyce says CO2 levels have risen over the last 100 years -- but won't say that's causing global temperatures to rise. These guys are quite the contortionists when it comes to logic.
10:44am - Listening to coal CEOs talk about climate science is exactly like listening to tobacco CEOs talk about cigarette safety.
10:32am - Ohio Coal Association President Michael Carey has four main points: 1) Coal is the strongest form of energy we have. 2) Coal is so weak it needs even more massive subsidies than the ACES Act provides or it can't survive on its own. 3) Global warming science is a scam! 4) The Clean Water Act is awful.
AstroTruth.org has one main point: Mike Carey is a horrible person.
10:26am - Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said the coal industry employs 70,000 people -- but now Arch Coal Chairman & CEO Steven F. Leer says adding carbon capture & storage to coal plants would create 800,000 jobs? How does that work???
10:23am - Kate Sheppard reports the protesters were youth activists shouting "coal is dirty" wearing face masks & with dirty hands. Also in the hearing room are Twitter's SierraClubLive & JWRandolph.
10:17am - There's a protester being removed from the hearing room. Meanwhile, here's a link to a Clean Air Task Force report that says, "Fine particle pollution from U.S. power plants cuts short the lives of nearly 24,000 people each year, including 2800 from lung cancer."
10:13am - Peabody Energy President & CEO Gregory Boyce opens by calling coal "clean" & "green." I mean, how can you believe another word that comes out of his mouth after that?
10:11am - By one measure, Arizona is 11th & Wisconsin is 26th in renewable energy resources, while Arizona is 32nd & Wisconsin is unranked in coal reserves. So why are Rep. Shadegg (R-AZ) & Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI) advocating not for renewables but for coal? Whose interests are they fighting for here?
10:03am - Wow -- Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) accuses committee Democrats of having "an anti-coal agenda." What happened to not picking winners & losers?
9:58am - Follow Mother Jones reporter Kate Sheppard, who's live-tweeting the hearing.
9:55am - Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) says coal employs 70,000 people! Does she think that's impressive? Does she realize 70,000 people wouldn't even fill nearby FedEx Field? Meanwhile, the American Clean Energy & Security Act would create 1,700,000 jobs. Why is this even a debate?
9:53am - Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) points out Glacier National Park has lost two more glaciers in large part due to global warming. He asks the coal executives to join efforts to stop global warming instead.
9:50am - Rep. Sensenbrenner says anything we do to get off polluting energy will send jobs to China. Classic polluter scare tactics -- even though we're losing jobs overseas now, anything we do to change course will make it worse! Just keep writing the checks to Big Coal & Big Oil and don't rock the boat.
9:46am - Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) demonstrates where his loyalties lie by immediately quoting the anti-clean energy, polluter-dominated National Association of Manufacturers.
9:45am - Rep. Markey says he believes there's a future for America's coal industry, including incentives provided by the House-passed Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy & Security Act, but it has to be centered on safer, cleaner practices.
9:41am - Rep. Markey reveals his family's connection to coal -- after his grandfather arrived from Ireland in 1902, he spent the next three decades hauling coal for a company in Malden, MA.
9:39am - Committee Chair Ed Markey (D-MA) gavels the hearing open.
8:58am - The hearing opens at 9:30am. The witness list:
* Gregory Boyce, President & Chief Executive Officer, Peabody Energy Corporation
* Steven F. Leer, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Arch Coal, Inc.
* Preston Chiaro, Chief Executive for Energy & Minerals, Rio Tinto
* Michael Carey, President, Ohio Coal Association
As David Roberts writes at Grist:
These are big dogs. Peabody is the largest private-sector coal company in the world; Arch Coal is the second largest supplier of coal in the U.S. Both are heavily invested in Wyoming's Powder River Basin, the nation's largest source of low-sulfur coal, which is expected to expand and prosper in coming years, climate legislation or no climate legislation. Both are among the top industry contributors to U.S. Congresscritters. Rio Tinto is also one of the largest coal mining companies in the world and the second largest producer in the U.S.
The Ohio Coal Association is a trade group that advocates for Ohio's coal industry and has supported efforts to block EPA regulations of CO2. After the House vote on the Waxman-Markey bill, the OCA bought billboards throughout the state attacking Ohio Rep. Zack Space (D) for voting yes. They read, "Like a puppet on a string, Congressman Space danced to Nancy Pelosi's tune in voting for the National Energy tax."
Notably absent: Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy and owner of the Upper Big Branch Mine, site of the recent disaster that saw the deaths of at least 25 [confirmed as 29 since David wrote this] coal miners.
8:50am - This is NWF's Miles Grant liveblogging from home, today's my telecommute day & it's not quite the same without liveblogging from NWF's kitchen with my coworkers providing a steady stream of snark as they make their morning coffee. I'll try to muddle through.
