At the annual winter meeting of the National Governors Association, which concluded Monday, state leaders revisited a previously launched initiative called “Securing a Clean Energy Future” — and struggled with the reality that “clean energy” has very different meanings to different states. “Clean coal,” in particular, was boosted by coal states and eyed with skepticism by others. In trying to hammer out energy recommendations for a new president, “We’re almost 50 different opinions,” lamented Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R). Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D) agreed: “[Coal] has a CO2 problem, wind has a reliability problem, solar has a price problem, nukes have a price and radiation problem. So all of those technologies have opportunities, but they all have problems.” Uh, but some obviously have more problems than others. Right? Right?
