Obama: Coal Industry to go Bankrupt – Video

Yesterday we published the audio of an interview Barack Obama gave to the San Fransisco Chronicle in January of this year. During the interview, Sen. Obama said that his energy plans would cause the prices of energy to “skyrocket” and he would put a system in place that would cause all new coal producing companies to go “bankrupt.”

Obviously, this cap system would also cause existing coal companies trouble – the logical consequence of his plan is that the coal industry as a whole will be ruined.

He told the San Fransisco audience that his plan was worth the economic damage because it would force Americans to use alternative energy sources and, so he hoped, his cap system would force businesses to innovate. Nonetheless, his plans would cost the coal industry as a whole tremendously.

The Chronicle had never reported the statements in its reports about the interview. Instead, it put some videos online, knowing that almost no one would watch them. In the end, people did, however, and found that the Chronicle had purposefully ignored statements that could cause Obama trouble.

Today, we do not only have the audio but also the video of the interview. I encourage you to watch it in its entirety, for it will eliminate the notion that the audio we published yesterday were taken “out of context” and that the “context” would prove that Obama’s plans for the coal industry were less radical.

The video proves no such thing. Rather, it proves what I wrote yesterday: Obama’s plans for coal and energy in general are highly ideological, and will cause tremendous damage to the U.S. economy.

Watch it:

Partial transcript:

“What I’ve said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else’s out there. I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.”

“If somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted.”

This will “generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.”

“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them.”