In Senate, coal fuels climate deals

Forget the debate over green jobs, wind farms and solar power. In the Senate, all deals on climate change run through coal country. Black gold has maintained a tight hold over the climate bill — despite a damaging lobbying scandal this summer, growing public health concerns and a destructive toxic coal ash spill that smothered 300 acres in eastern Tennessee last December. “They don’t have a deal until they get the coal-state senators, and they are a long way from doing it,” said Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). “They’re going to need us to pass a bill.” And coal-state senators haven’t been shy about their needs. On Thursday, a group of 14 coal-state members, in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), urged Senate Democrats to offer more protection in the climate bill for coal-dependent utilities. “You’ve got to have the coal states,” said Peter Gray, chairman of the environmental law practice at McKenna Long & Aldridge. “If Democrats want a climate change bill, they are going to have to accept concessions to the coal industry.” Even the Senate’s most liberal Democrats recognize the stronghold coal has in the Senate...read more