Coal Industry Plugs Into the Campaign [View All]

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/17/AR2008011702837.html?hpid=topnews

Coal Industry Plugs Into the Campaign

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 18, 2008; D01

A group backed by the coal industry and its utility allies is waging a $35 million campaign in primary and caucus states to rally public support for coal-fired electricity and to fuel opposition to legislation that Congress is crafting to slow climate change.

The group, called Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, has already spent $1.3 million on billboard, newspaper, television and radio ads in Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina.

One its television ads shows a power cord being plugged into a lump of coal, which it calls "an American resource that will help us with vital energy security" and "the fuel that powers our way of life." The ads note that half of U.S. electricity currently comes from coal-fired plants.

The group has also deployed teams on the campaign trail; about 50 people, many of them paid, walked around as human billboards and handed out leaflets outside Tuesday's Democratic debate in Nevada with questions for voters to pose to the candidates.

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