Biden Off Message Again: "We're Not Supporting Clean Coal"

Think Progress:

At a campaign stop today in Maumee, OH, Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) talked to Carolyn Auwaerter, a young 1Sky campaigner, about energy policy. Questioned about his campaign's support for "clean coal," Biden vigorously defended his record in favor of renewable energy, and outlined what he sees as the key challenge: developing carbon capture and sequestration technology (which he calls "clean coal") to limit the pollution from China's rapidly increasing fleet of coal plants. In his words, captured on video by the Energy Action Coalition:

No coal plants here in America. Build them, if they're going to build them over there make 'em clean because they're killing you.

Biden also claimed, "We're not supporting 'clean coal.'" In fact, "clean coal" is a major part of Sen. Obama's energy plan and public rhetoric, calling for the development and deployment of "clean coal technology" as part of his green jobs initiative.

Read the whole story: Think Progress

Comments

[ProudLiberalDan]

Joe Biden has had a bad couple of days.

That said, unlike Palin, he is qualified to serve as President.

[nwmother]

I actually agree with Joe Biden on clean coal. Obama's willingness to support the myth of "clean" coal, offshore drilling compromise, expansion of nuclear power, corn-based ethanol, etc. are all non-starters for myself and many other self-described environmentalists. I think that Dennis Kucinich (don't remember Joe piping in then) was the only democrat in the primaries not vocally supporting retro sources of energy and since he wasn't a viable option to win and winning is the most important thing, I had to swallow my distaste for some of Obama's energy policy ideas. His plan for expansion of alternatives/conservation are still far superior to anything that the Mccain campaign has attempted to articulate as are all of his other stated goals and policies.

[vegangoddess]

I understand your feeling on these importang energy issues. Obama does not want to expand nuclear power, he's ok with it in a limited fashion and only if it can be shown that they can deal with the waste. As far as corn based, same thing, limited unless it can be seen to be more viable. If we stopped making high fructose corn syrup that alone would decrease "food" costs. Start cutting animal consumption for food and you have tons of ethanol from corn! As far as coal, he wants to be able to incorporate it, again, as long as it can be a transition and not done in the way that China is.

He knows the future of energy and is only utilizing these technologies as a stop-gap. With the congress taking the off-shore drilling off the table for now we KNOW that Obama will reinstate the ban when he gets in office so that was a smart move. BTW, he'll also deal with that FISA mess when he gets in too. Let's get him in office and then he can light the way and drag all the neanderthals and oil-addicts along into the new millenium!

[Whiteneck]

Can a VP nominee be replaced now?

[nwmother]

I suppose you would prefer if he just stuck to a list of stupid talking points like caribou barbie.

[Laprawler501]

Well he should know his campaign's position on issues like Clean Coal.

[rzan1]

You mean Palin, don't you?

[hu.man]

Biden is demonstrating that he was not the most efficacious VP choice. Obama may finally come to regret going the safe route on VP. This race is going down to the wire whereas Obama should be on top handily. Obama needs to think outside the box the way he did to win the primaries.

[santamonica39]

Big deal. This is Obama's administration, not Biden's. Gore and Clinton differed on a lot of environmental issues but it didn't stop them from being an effective pair. Biden should just say that he an Obama may differ slightly on this but of course he defers to Barack. Palin and McCain have been doing this for weeks!

[the964kid]

Joe Biden can't take his foot out of his mouth. Where's the discipline?? Pretty soon the Obama camp is gonna have to 'pull a Palin' and hide Joe away from the media.

That being said, is Palin going to come out of the witness protection program before the election??

[MadFae]

I think sometimes Biden forgets he's now campaigning with Obama and not for himself. He's got to throw out the way he thought for a year and shift gears. Maybe it's hard for him...but it would help if he's brush up on issues that are relevant to specific events he's attending. sigh.

[BethinIllinois]

That Joe! Yesterday he had FDR on television in 1929 -- didn't happen, and FDR as president in 1929. Also didn't happen.

Then he also had himself kind of inflating the reason his helicopter had to land abruptly in afghanistan. A snowstorm is not exactly enemy fire...

Hey! Maybe it was the same kind of sniper fire as Hillary!

[cjo501]

and TV in 1929 didn't happen. Maybe they should go with the McCain style. Write one speech, have him say it over and over again, and then boot the media out after 29 seconds of photo-ops.

On second thought, I'll take the guy that actually talks for himself, even if it is a bit too much sometimes.

[nwmother]

Dissent in our party is not rewarded by being thrown under the bus.

[disgusted48]

Arabia has oil. We can't keep starting fights with them to get it. We have coal. We need to figure out how to get it out of the ground safely and efficiently, as well as making it into a clean environmentally safe fuel source. It's gonna take some research, some brains, and some investment.

[nwmother]

Or we could increase fuel-efficiency standards for our cars to say--40mpg average, invest in alternative energy sources like wind, solar, thermal, and tidal power--of which we also have an abundance. We could invest in producing engineers and products to sell to the rest of the world, as we did with manufactured goods up until recently. Mining for coal is too distructive (check out west virginia from the air) and burning coal will lead to further increases in global temperatures even with scrubbers on the stacks. America will not remain a global superpower by clinging to 19th century technology.

[kutkreata]

Good Old Joe. He's right about "clean coal" & the MSM is obsessed with this bs story about Obama making a mistake in not choosing Hillary. Whatever. An obvious attempt to make everyone question Barack's judgement and rile up the Clintonites. They're obsessed with making Joe out to be a gaffe king so they nitpick because they know that McCain has a loser of a VP & they are trying to even out the doubts that folks have for Miss Mooseburger. They never seem to show Joe when he's stumping or show they show very little of him. I love watching him on youtube. He's a heavy hitter & I'm so glad that Obama picked him.

[luvangelHussein330]

Come on Joe... stay on message! Although he could be doing it to garner some media time away from Palin...this aint the way to do it though...maybe he can hack into his own email account for attention like palin did...that story kind came and went didn't it...

[theone718]

I really think he should throughly be studying up on Obama's plans. Tell Joe Biden to just go on Obama's website, all the information is right there.

[DesertLight]

O is not going to take his Beretta away. He doesn't go for that kind of malarky.

[McChimp]

get a life t r0ll

[Ron1951]

C'mon Joe, get with it. Franklyh, if you had just thought about the question for a moment instead of reacting, you would have heard the word "clean" as well as "coal". As i understand it there is no such thing at the moment, but there could very well be in the near future. Coal gasification, if clean, would be a great boon to our country because we have huge reserves of coal.

And you know all of this. So just slow down, listen to the entire question, and then give your answer. And if you don't know, don't be afraid to say it.

[thylacine550]

hmmmmm... well, this little gaffe DID take some of the attention away from "Hockey Mom's Big Day at the UN" for a bit, didn't it?

not such a bad thing.

[pupbayer]

Only on Huffpo. This happened Sept. 18. That's when the rest of the world reported on it.

[4midable]

Wrong. it's on Drudge today.

[whiteboyblues]

News Flash: There is no such thing as "clean" coal