Coal lovers can breathe easy (as long as they’re not downwind of a coal-fired power plant, that is). President Obama’s new energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, has dismissed conservative claims that his boss is waging a war on coal, assuring Americans that the dirtiest fossil fuel will remain a vital part of America’s energy mix in the years to come.
Obama “expects fossil fuels, and coal specifically, to remain a significant contributor for some time,” Moniz told Reuters in Vienna, where he was to attend a nuclear security conference.
The way the U.S. administration is “looking at it is: what does it take for us to do to make coal part of a low carbon future,” he said, adding this would include higher efficiency plants and new ways of utilizing coal.
It is “all about having, in fact, coal as part of that future,” Moniz said. “I don’t believe it is a ‘war on coal’.”
Well, that’s a relie … cough hack cough … f.
