Palin wrongly accuses newspaper of hiding Obama interview transcript regarding coal
A mini-controversy has broken out over remarks Gov. Palin made on Sunday at a campaign stop in Ohio. Palin accused Sen. Obama of claiming he wants to bankrupt the coal industry in an interview with the SF Chronicle in January. Palin also suggested that the newspaper had intentionally withheld the tape recording of this interview for political reasons.
“You gotta listen to the tape,” she said. “Why is this audio tape just now surfacing? This interview was given many months ago. You (the audience) should have known about this.”
Unfortunately for Palin, this interview was, in fact, published in full on the Chronicle’s website in January. In it Obama states, in reference to a proposed cap-and-trade system, “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. Obama also noted, “if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.”
Obama has walked a fine line between environmentalists and miners with his coal policies. Environmentalists have criticized him for being too open to “clean” coal and miners have criticized him for wanting to regulate emissions from coal plants. Palin apparently mischaracterized both Obama’s position regarding coal, as well whether the Chronicle published the transcript.
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