In the same vein as the half-pint shill with a skateboard who’s “stoked” about how clean coal is, this greenwash site for Peabody Coal tries to appeal to the bumpersticker platitude crowd in its latest ad:

ENERGY FOR THE 21st CENTURY
Flip a switch.
Play a tune.
Warm your home.
Fuel your car.
Yeah … coal can do that.

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Stories like this don’t tell themselves.

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And really, what can’t coal do? Insipidity and people’s high tolerance for it never cease to amaze. But the technologies and promises for a bright, clean future don’t reflect the costs being incurred right now. So I thought of another ad (equally banal):

Poison your water supply.
Contaminate the fish.
Damage your child’s nervous system.
Yeah … mercury does that.

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