Obama: “Let’s Bankrupt The Coal Industry!”

Posted by Lorren on November 2, 2008

Earlier this year, Barack Obama was interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle, saying that the cap and trade restrictions that he wanted to pass would probably bankrupt the coal industry. Here is a link to my source.

With our economy being the way it is, we don’t purposely need to bankrupt an industry on purpose.

While it’s quoted in the linked article, I’ll link it here as well in case you don’t want to click:

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

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.

So 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.

~ Barack Obama