WSJ: Steven Chu: Okay, Coal’s Just a 'Pretty Bad Dream'

[bananas]

http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/01/13/steven-chu-okay-coals-just-a-pretty-bad-dream/

January 13, 2009, 11:34 am
Steven Chu: Okay, Coal’s Just a ‘Pretty Bad Dream’
Posted by Keith Johnson

The Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee’s nomination hearing on Energy Secretary nominee Steven Chu cut to the chase early on. North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan asked Dr. Chu how he really feels about coal as part of America’s energy mix, after having referred to coal in a speech as “my worst nightmare.”

Dr. Chu hedged his opposition to coal and came out strongly in favor of so-called clean coal technology.

“If the world continues to use coal the way it has been—I mean China, India, Russia—then it is a pretty bad dream,” Dr. Chu said. China has yet to tackle even coal’s basic particulate pollution problem, he said. But coal is also a “very abundant resource,” Dr. Chu added, making it “imperative” that the U.S. learns to capture carbon-dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants.

“If confirmed, I will work very hard to extensively develop” clean-coal technology, he said. Nodding to widespread environmental opposition to continued use of coal—clean or otherwise—Dr. Chu said, “Even if we turn off coal, China and India will not.”

<snip more back-pedalling>

[kristopher]

1. Go back and look at Roberts and Alito during confirmation....

I hate lying, but it is an inescapable part of the process.

[bananas]

4. Yup.

I posted this because I noticed news articles hyping his pro-coal and pro-nuclear statements.

I gave my impression here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=182518&mesg_id=182637
"He basically said "yes" to everything. ..."

Here's Joe Romm's impression: http://climateprogress.org/2009/01/13/chu-on-our-current-path-we-run-the-risk-of-dramatic-disruptive-changes-to-our-climate-system-in-the-lifetimes-of-our-children-and-grandchildren/
"I actually thought Stephen Chu’s confirmation hearing for Energy Secretary was pretty boring. The Dems certainly didn’t want to trip him up. But the GOP didn’t really ask him any tough questions, ..."

[DCKit]

2. The cost of "clean" coal would (instantly) make alternatives competitive.

But only as long as the gubmint doesn't subsidize the coal burners. Which they will, of course.

[phantom power]

3. It's causing a "pretty bad extinction event."

[Barrett808]

5. Well, more of a "mass extinction event"...maybe the worst Earth has ever experienced

Do not want.