Coal industry to Obama: Friend or foe?

NEW YORK (Reuters) – President Obama appears committed to developing clean coal technology and his administration might not be as opposed to the fossil fuel as the industry feared, analysts and mining experts say.

Coal producers, blamed by environmentalists for causing global warming through carbon emissions, were wary of a new administration pledging to advance alternative energy sources.

The miners watched as Nobel laureate Steven Chu, the new head of the Energy Department, called coal — that generates half America’s electricity — “my worst nightmare.”

And Carole Browner, who will coordinate White House policy on energy, climate and environmental issues, and who headed the Environmental Protection Agency under Bill Clinton, is an advocate of the Kyoto Protocol to combat climate change.

Even Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who is responsible for drilling and mining leases on federal land, was a former environmental lawyer and architect of Colorado’s land conservation program, who forced mining and oil operations to protect the environment.

But under Obama, those positions may not be so hard and fast and the coal industry could benefit in the long-term, the observers believe.

Reuters