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Obama’s New Plan Attacks Coal Industry

Truck carrying 250 tons of coal / AP

As President Barack Obama prepares to roll out a new plan to combat climate change by imposing new regulatory burdens on coal power plants, one White House climate adviser says the effort is explicitly aimed at attacking the coal industry.

"A war on coal is exactly what’s needed," Daniel P. Schrag, director of the Harvard University Center for the Environment and a climate adviser to the White House, told the New York Times on Tuesday.

Schrag said he hopes the president, who is expected to announce a series of executive actions on Tuesday to crack down on the coal industry, will "begin the process of shutting down the conventional coal plants."

The president will commit to $7 billion in financing for international climate mitigation and adaptation projects, primarily in developing countries and nations most vulnerable to rising seas and other climate-related threats. But it is not clear now much of that is new money and how much is already committed under existing international aid programs.

The package includes $8 billion in loan guarantees for innovative energy efficiency and fossil fuel projects, including efforts to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions from power plants burning coal and natural gas.

U.S. carbon emissions are currently at 1994 levels, and scientists are struggling to explain why the Earth’s temperature does not appear to be rising.

(H/T Daniel Halper)