After Gutenberg

Along with Think Progress, this blog has noted that the coal industry has sponsored nearly all of the presidential debates hosted by CNN. Think Progress also has noted that Big Coal now has a website and has launched TV ads to spout its propaganda. Like the ad for a well-known pesticide from their Big Oil brethren, the ads use children to carry the message.

From mud-slinging and slanted ads, Big Coal now makes an improper offer to the Kansas legislature

“Ever since the Kansas Department of Health and Environment denied air quality permits for two 700-megawatt coal-burning power generators near Holcomb, KS, in October,” observes student activist Morgan , “the coal industry has fought back with everything it can muster.”

“In November, it published newspaper ads comparing Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Vladimir Putin, and Hugo Chavez.” While a bit more lofty than a bimbo in Monaco, It now would seem that the coal industry is willing to resort to a form of bribery in its fight to continue with Business As Usual And Above All Else.

Sunflower Electric, a leading Kansas power company, has offered millions to Kansas State Universityfor energy research — that is, if the legislature approves its bid for new coal plants first. Speaker Melvin Neufeld (R) emphasized the large cash gift yesterday as he urged his colleagues to approve the plants:

Neufeld, R-Ingalls, noted the plant’s developers, Sunflower Electric Power Corp., have entered into a memorandum of understanding to pay $2.5 million to Kansas State University over 10 years for energy research if the plants get built.

SMH photo: Dr Karl Kruszelnicki in Sydney.

“Celebrity physicist Karl Kruszelnicki has described clean coal as a ‘complete furphy’ and likened it to Nazi propaganda.”

If Sunflower Electric doesn’t get state permits to build by June 1, there’s no deal with KSU, according to the memorandum of understanding, which was distributed to all House members for their perusal.

At least some Kansas politicians would seem perturbed by such business ethics. State Rep. Paul Davis (D) said such an offer was “in poor taste.”

Apparently, the coal industry is willing to pull out all the stops to ensure a victory in a year that has, so far, brought nothing but bad news for the industry. Big Coal has been forced to pay massively expensive settlements for polluting rivers, has suffered the loss of government funding for a new carbon-capturing plant, and has faced a skeptical Wall Street, as big banks indicate that coal is no longer a healthy or wise investment.

When the hand on the Doomsday clock was moved 2 minutes closer to midnight as a result of climate changes and nuclear proliferation, Professor Steven Hawking observed, ”But for good luck, we would all be dead,”

States have taken the lead in climate action, accelerating clean energy , and shunning new coal plants, while some businesses have begun to embrace carbon regulations and many have begun spending serious dollars on clean tech.

Hopefully, federal politics and policy can catch up. It’s minutes to Doomsday, do you know your favorite candidate’s position on coal?