A lump of coal in the filings…
Peabody Energy (BTU) filed an interesting 8K yesterday with this presentation that it plans to give at the Credit Suisse Energy Summit which is taking place in Vail today. One of the slides that jumped out at me was on pg. 13, which touted how coal-friendly the Obama Administration is.
With pictures and quotes from Obama, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, the slide notes that “Obama proposes five major CCS projects”, which apparently comes from the energy plan than Obama put out during the campaign.
But it’s the quote from Chu, in particular, which the slide said was taken from his confirmation hearing last month that seems particularly at odds with other public comments from Chu. For example, in December the WSJ quoted Chu as saying “Coal is my worst nightmare.” To be fair, I haven’t watched Chu’s confirmation hearings. Nor have I seen a transcript so I don’t want to imply that the quote isn’t accurate. It just seems like it was plucked out of what were probably a lot more cautious statements. Chu’s prepared testimony, for example, only mentions the word coal once.
UPDATE: Salon.com took a closer look at Chu’s testimony and it turns out that Peabody did a bit of air-brushing here.
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Posted in Tags: 8Ks, energy, politics |
 2 Comments » |
February 4th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Quoted Text:
“”The coal resources in the United States are immense. I am hopeful and optimistic that we can use those resources in a clean way. It’s really a question of technology. I think we will be using that great natural resource.”
Actual:
“Well, so, specifically, let me just say that as I said with Senator Dorgan, that the coal resources in the United States are immense. And I am very hopeful and optimistic that we can figure out a way to use those resources in a clean way. And so, I think it’s, again, it’s a question of science and technology and really putting the pedal to the floor and trying to develop as quickly as possible the capture and sequestration technology. I’m very hopeful that this will occur and I think that we will be using that great natural resource.”
You can plainly see where sections were left out from the original.
February 9th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
It is obvious from the quotes being debated (see them on Salon.com) that Secretary Chu believes in carbon capture and sequestration research. He flat out states, in reference to the development of CCS: “I’m very hopeful that this will occur and I think that we will be using that great natural resource.”
And Dr. Chu is right.
We will be using coal well into the future – along with all of our other energy resources. And his hope that the development of CCS will continue is well-founded. There is currently more than $6 billion in clean coal research underway in 41 states.
Here at ACCCE*, we not only believe in CCT and CCS, we support a mandatory federal plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well. You can see that for yourself right here.
So instead of arguing over who said what, let’s devote that time and energy to solving the problems that lie before us.
*Peabody Energy Corp. is a member of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Technology.