Pruitt: 'If We Really Care About Clean Air' We Should Export More American Coal

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo



By Matt Shuham | May 31, 2018 10:39 am

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has a novel proposal for improving global air quality: burn more American coal.

In an interview with Pruitt published Wednesday, the Washington Free Beacon’s Elizabeth Harrington noted President Donald Trump’s affinity for the term “clean coal” and asked “How is coal doing?”

Pruitt pointed to “the demand for Powder River Basin coal,” referring to the basin straddling Wyoming and Montana that accounts for a large chunk of American coal production, as an example of exported American coal.

“I was in Wyoming recently,” he continued. “And if we really care about clean air, we would allow Indonesia to buy our coal from Wyoming, because it’s far cleaner than what they’re using now.”



Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/pruitt-if-we-really-care-about-clean-air-we-should-export-more-american-coal

[C_U_L8R]

1. Maybe Pruitt should go

toast some marshmallows on a volcano.
He can even fly there in a private jet.

[Initech]

2. Clean coal: how is this still a thing?

[SWBTATTReg]

3. Yeah, and who is going to pay for shipping it there? By ...

the time you get the coal out of the ground, processed, and shipped to the coast, loaded onto freighters, and shipped to wherever, the costs overcome any benefits.

I think that the Chinese and others are probably more on the ball than anyone in RUMP's orbit even realizes (since a horse could kick RUMP in the ass and RUMP would not feel it) by their heavy use of solar (and wind I'm guessing).

Pruitt is sniffing powdered coal up his nose and I guarantee you this, that there is somewhere a massive conflict of interest w/ RUMP's admin. and coal. These guys are obsessed way too much w/ coal, don't you think?

[Turbineguy]

4. Pruit make a special kind of sense.

If everybody else's air is really bad, ours would by definition be good!

And if you export the coal to countries where people are predominantly dark skinned, They'll move to the U.S.!

[packman]

5. Let us open our dictionaries to ----

ox·y·mo·ron
/ˌäksəˈmôrˌän/

noun
noun: oxymoron; plural noun: oxymorons

a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction (e.g., faith unfaithful kept him falsely true ).

Example:

Jumbo shrimp
Compassionate Conservative
Clean Coal

[BigmanPigman]

11. Government Intelligence.

[cyclonefence]

6. Somebody should point out to Mr. Jackoffbooth

that there's only one atmosphere, and it doesn't care what country it's over at any given moment.

[apnu]

7. "up is down, black is white"

?t=58

[kimbutgar]

8. I remember as a kid playing outside in Chicago and getting covered in coal ash in the 60's

Used to visit grandma in the summers. By noon I was dirty and had to take a bath to clean up for lunch and then another at night before dinner. It was so dirty. I lived in California and never experienced that.

Pruitt is crazy.

[Hortensis]

12. Ah, memories. Our winter place in a mobile home

park is on an estuary between two busy highway bridges. It's a wonderful little place, beautiful setting, lots of amenities very close by, nothing ever goes on the market, but the dust is black from road pollution. Good thing it's an over-55 park and no children are raised there.

LA has special geographic issues that cause a "smog" described by original residents hundreds of years ago, so that's a base to hope to return to. But I remember as an appraiser having to describe views worth large fortunes in text because my photos showed nothing but blank.

[hack89]

9. Powder River Basin coal is low sulfur coal

It only became economical to burn when power stations were required to cut their emissions. It probably is a lot cleaner than what Indonesia is burning.

That being said, the price of coal would have to be a lot higher for it to make economical sense to increase production at Powder River Basin. It is expensive to mine due to the depth of most of the deposits.

[pazzyanne]

10. I swear, I don't believe

there is a more stupid man than Pruitt. That is saying a lot considering the rest of the cabinet. Betsy is excused from this due to her being a woman and the fact that her stupidity places her in an entirely different category all together.

[riversedge]

13. sigh.