Today's Must Reads: Coal trains are death trains & other climate change joys

One of the nation's leading climate scientists, James Hansen, is not a happy camper. Read why in this op-ed he just submitted to a British newspaper.

Coal is not only the largest fossil fuel reservoir of carbon dioxide, it is the dirtiest fuel. Coal is polluting the world’s oceans and streams with mercury, arsenic and other dangerous chemicals. The dirtiest trick that governments play on their citizens is the pretense that they are working on “clean coal” or that they will build power plants that are “capture ready” in case technology is ever developed to capture all pollutants. The trains carrying coal to power plants are death trains

We all remember "clean coal," right?

The scientist who coordinated the UN's most recent report on climate change says the situation is far worse than they had thought. That last report failed to take a few, key factors into account, he says. Uh oh...

Coal industry crashes Democratic convention

[updated 8:47 pm CST]

Environmentalists report that the coal industry is throwing money and "the clean coal lie" at the 20,000 plus people gathered in Denver for the Democratic National Convention. The group I highlighted in my Salon.com report -- The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (or "Ace" as its leaders pronounce the name) -- also plans to head to the Republican convention next week.

The Hill reports:

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), a group of mining companies and electric utilities, plans to spend $1.7 million on advertising and lobbying at the Democratic convention in Denver and the Republican one next week in St. Paul, Minn.

Michigan Messenger says "The Clean Coal Lie is Everywhere."

Solve Climate has a good overview of ACCE's activities and links to other stories.

When last I looked, ACCE had budgeted $45 million for just this year to convince voters and politicos that carbon dioxide can be scrubbed from coal. So far, the technology to do that doesn't exist, and even optimists say that kind of tech won't come online for at least a decade or two. Without that new, still non-existent tech, coal plants will remain one of the major engines warming the globe.

ACCE's plan is to make American taxpayers foot the bill for the R & D needed to transform coal into a clean fuel like wind or solar power.

[update]

Is the clean-coal push at the DNC falling flat? Also, environmentalists remind us that carbon dioxide isn't the only problem with the idea that coal can ever been clean.

Some Daily Kos bloggers track down the coal folk in Denver.