On the ground in Denver

Excitement is in the air. All this week, the America’s Power campaign will be coming to you from Denver, the site of the Democratic National Convention. Next week, we’ll be in the Twin Cities for the Republican National Convention.

You don’t have to be in Denver or the Twin Cities to understand that energy has emerged as one of the key issues of the 2008 election. As I travel across the country, I see political ads in just about every state where candidates from both parties are talking about energy issues. People are talking about how energy prices affect our everyday lives. They are talking about the need for policies that promote energy independence. And people are discussing the link between energy production and the environment.

This is a discussion we welcome, because let’s face it -– this is what we’ve been talking about for a long time.

We're at the political conventions to talk about how America’s domestic coal reserves provide a low-cost energy source that can help us become more energy independent. And as always, we’ll be talking about how investments in technologies continue to make American coal an even cleaner energy option for both America and the world (given that other countries will also be increasing their use of coal to meet growing energy needs).

I invite you to follow along with us as this policy dialogue unfolds over the next few weeks.

We welcome your comments on what is shaping up to be the more important topic in this year’s election: securing America’s energy future.

Comments

[Andrea Hirsch]

How can you possibly call coal energy clean? Just because you have found a way to store the emissions temporarily does not mean that they will eventually be released into our atmosphere. That's like saying so long as we can contain all of our dirty habits in a bubble they don't matter and they aren't still dirty habits. Why wouldn't you focus your attention on actual clean alternative energy solutions such as geothermal, solar or wind technologies? There are no nasty chemicals to be caught from the production of any of those alternatives. And that's what makes them clean.

Why would you spend all this time and money lying to the American people trying to convince them of something that will ultimately blow up in their faces? We need to stop all this crazy denial and understand that we need to fundamentally change our reliance on fossil fuels for renewable energy solutions.

[Syd]

This is a joke. Someday they won't let you people anywhere near our policy makers, and when that happens, America can start taking care of its citizens and ignoring the lawyers these industries send to stall and derail our democracy.