Watching The Daily Show last night, I was just about to exercise the most satisfying part of having a TiVo (fast forwarding through commercials) when an ad began to play, mocking the elusive technology of "clean coal." In the ad itself, our hero in the commercial promises to take us on a tour of a state-of-the-art clean coal facility, only to open a door to a barren landscape. Watch it:
The ad comes from a project called This Is Reality, which is made up of a coalition of environmental groups including, the Alliance for Climate Protection, Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the League of Conservation Voters. The project's goal is to counteract the aggressive PR push from the coal industry touting the benefits of clean coal.
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This topic will prove to be a major battleground in the media over the next few years as the push for increased domestic energy production brings the pros and cons of coal to center stage.