Reporting from
Washington —
Coal-fired power plants are the largest source of heat-trapping gases
that cause global warming, but President Obamas plan to fight climate
change would result in the nation burning more coal a decade from now
than it does today.


The administrations plan, the centerpiece of a 700-page legislative package, proposes strict limits on emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide.

But to attract vital support from congressional Democrats representing
heavily coal-dependent areas, authors of the legislation, including
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills), have made a series of
concessions that substantially soften its effect on coal — at least
over the next decade or so.

As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency projects that even if
the emissions limits go into effect, the U.S. would use more
carbon-dioxide-heavy coal in 2020 than it did in 2005.

Thats because the bill gives utilities a financial incentive to keep
burning coal by joining the cap-and-trade system — a kind of
marketplace where polluters could reduce their emissions on paper by
buying pollution reductions created by others. These so-called offsets,
for example, could be created and sold by farmers who planted trees,
which filter carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Environmental groups also say the bill could set off a boom in the
construction of new coal plants because of provisions that would
restrict legal efforts to block such projects.

Leading Democrats — and some major conservation groups, such as the
Natural Resources Defense Council — say the moves have helped attract
coal-district Democrats to support the bill without undermining the
plans environmental goals.

"We’ve ensured a role for coal" in the nations energy future, said
Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.), one of the leading coal champions in the
House.

But some environmentalists remain skeptical that offsets can reduce
greenhouse gases to avoid catastrophic warming of the atmosphere.

"This is greens making a deal with the devil," said Ted Nordhaus,
chairman of the Breakthrough Institute, an environmentalist think tank
that recently completed a detailed critique of the bill’s coal provisions.

Obama and House leaders "gave the coal guys everything they wanted,"
said Michael Shellenberger, the institutes president. "The result is
legislation that, when all is said and done, will increase coal
generation and make it harder to move away from it."

The EPA projects Obamas plan would slow the growth in coal over what
would have occurred in the absence of emission limits. Emissions from
coal would grow at roughly the same rate as overall coal use, until
"clean coal" technology becomes commercially viable.

Under the plan, the EPA projects that after 2020, conventional coal use
would begin to fall quickly. That prediction rests on a still-uncertain
assumption that new nuclear power plants would begin to come on line.

The analysis also assumes scientists will master advanced technologies
that could make coal more attractive from an emissions standpoint. As
of now, no one has on a commercial scale.

Obamas Energy Department announced this month that it would spend more than $1 billion to restart a carbon-capture demonstration plant in Mattoon, Ill.

The focus on coal in climate legislation is directly linked to its
abundance. Coal has been burned for heat since the time of cavemen. It
stoked the smokestacks of the Industrial Revolution and powered the
first steam engines. It remains the source of half of the electric
power in the United States and is the nations most abundant fossil
fuel.

"Whatever the ideal vision of the future," said David G. Hawkins,
director of climate programs for the NRDC, "coal will be there for
decades at least."

The coal industry spent $38 million in the 2008 presidential campaign
to push its message, and it has succeeded in changing the nature of the
debate.

"In the past, there was a drive to use climate policy as a wedge to
take coal out of the energy mix," said Joe Lucas, senior vice president
of communications for the industry-funded American Coalition for Clean
Coal Electricity. "Theres just been a fundamental shift."

Several of the most coal-dependent utilities have endorsed the House
bill, but the coal coalition has not — it wants caps on the price of
emission permits, among other amendments. But Lucas said the bill was
"closer" than it had ever been to industry acceptance.

Still, most Republicans, particularly those from coal-heavy regions,
say the bill is still not a good deal for coal consumers, who include
many of the poorest Americans.

"Why is it that the wealthy parts of our country continue to attack the
lifestyles of the rural poor?" Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.), a longtime
coal champion, asked at a hearing on the energy bill last month. "If
you’re going to put a price on carbon emissions now, later or in the
future, those that rely on [coal] are going to be harmed."

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