Interior Secretary - "Well, There's No Such Thing As Clean Energy"

[hatrack]

Zinke praised President Donald Trump’s sweeping order to roll back Obama-era policies designed to mitigate and prepare for climate change and defended his agency’s move to lift the temporary halt on new coal leases on federal lands — a reversal that will come at a significant cost to taxpayers — by claiming “there’s no such thing as clean energy.”

“I understand you are today rescinding a ban on coal leasing on federal lands… are you hurting the environment to help jobs?” the host asked. “We’re not hurting the environment,” Zinke replied. “If you look at — is there such thing as clean coal? Well there’s no such thing as clean energy — even wind comes at a cost if you want to talk about migratory birds and cutting through.”

“But coal, can we do it better? Absolutely,” Zinke continued. “But it is better to export cleaner coal overseas than to have China use low-quality, high sulfur coal. So if you want to look at how to protect the environment it is better to use cleaner grade coal, made in the U.S., than it is for China, which is building coal power plants as we speak. They’re reducing their nuclear power capability and expanding their coal fired power plants — we need to make sure we provide them the cleanest coal and invest in our technology here at home. Everyone wants clean air and water but we can do it better.”

EDIT

Zinke has touted an “all of the above” energy approach in the past, and did so again in the Fox News Radio interview, adding that “the market should play and the government needs to get out of picking winners and losers” — a statement that doesn’t square with the Trump administration’s apparent desire to prop up the coal industry despite market signals. Like much of Trump’s cabinet, Zinke has misrepresented the science regarding human-caused climate change, falsely testifying in his confirmation hearing that there is ongoing debate over how much of an influence humans have had on recent warming (there’s not).

EDIT

https://thinkprogress.org/trumps-interior-secretary-there-s-no-such-thing-as-clean-energy-16886eef1ab4

[Botany]

1. Dangerous liar.

" ... China, which is building coal power plants as we speak."

China is getting rid of the coal fired power plants and has set a goal of
zero coal fired power plants by 2020.

[exboyfil]

3. Where are getting this?

While they have cancelled a number of projects, they are still planning to increase coal electric output from 920 GW to 1100 GW.

http://energydesk.greenpeace.org/2017/01/16/china-coal-power-overcapacity-crackdown/

Of course the economics of shipping coal to China seem very problematic. I am amazed though at the number of countries that both import and export coal (for example Netherlands imports 7 M short tons of coal from us but exports $3B in coal - are they importing it and then selling it to the rest of Europe?).

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Zinke is a binary thinker. And using the quest for perfect as an enemy of the good.

1) Think the ying-yang symbol. The black dot in the white swirl is there to remind that even white is not pure white.

2) "The perfect is the enemy of the good." It is binary thinking to imagine that unless something is perfect, it is no good. Of course this kind of binary fallacy is only applied by sloppy thinkers against what they dislike.

3) China has its own coal, yet is getting rid of coal powered plants and factories as fast as it can. They are NOT going to buy US coal.

4) Coal jobs are not coming back. Peak production was in the 1950s. Peak employment was in the 1920s. America was great in the 1920s only in comparison to the 1880s, not in comparison to the 1950s. Similarly America was great in the 1950s only in comparison to the 1920s, not in comparison to the Twenty-Teens.

5) Sustainable power like wind power is so much cleaner than coal and than even "clean coal" that only a slave to mega-corps like Zincke would make a ridiculous statement like he does. "If you look at — is there such thing as clean coal? Well there’s no such thing as clean energy — even wind comes at a cost if you want to talk about migratory birds and cutting through."

[underpants]

4. They've been using that bird line for 40 years

Once they get a line they like they stick with it.

[Botany]

5. According to the Koch Brothers wind power kills 25,000,000 eagles a year.

n/t

[NickB79]

6. He must have confused China and Japan

Because China is ramping up nuclear, while Japan is cutting theirs.