Twelve coal miners died in a mine accident on Jan. 2.
On. Jan 19m two more miners are found dead after a mine fire.
Yet dangerous coal mining has been part of the Bush-Cheney energy plan ever since the infamous meeting with Ken Lay and other oil executives crafted the plan in May 2001. Meanwhile, conservation, solar, wind and research into other energy alternatives remain anathema to this regime.
Why coal? Why this principal source of greenhouse emissions?
Coal and the Bush family go way back.
In documents revealed in 2003, Bush grandfather Prescott Bush had ties to German industrialist Fritz Thyssen, a steel and coal baron who funded Adolf Hitler's rise to power. (Their bank UBC, was seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemies Act and another associate was convicted at the Nuremberg trials 12 years for employing slave labor – but those are different stories).
After leaving office, George H.W. Bush makes millions sitting on a variety of corporate boards including one of the largest coal companies.
The coal industry contributed more than $250,000 to George W. Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign.
Once in office, Bush has favored the coal industry in a number of ways. On the day of his first inauguration, he froze all recently enacted regulations relating to several industries including the coal industry. In his first term, he excused coal-burning power plants from complying with the Clean Air Act.
And in his quest to appoint cronies and incompetents to all high-level positions, Bush appointed Dave Lauriski, a former executive with Energy West Mining, as director of the Mine Safety and Health Administration. William G. Myers III, an attorney whose clients include Arch Coal, Peabody Coal, Kennecott Energy and the National Mining Association, became Solicitor General for the Department of the Interior.
Is it any wonder there have been two fatal mine accidents this month?
Bush on coal:
"We're spending money on clean coal technology. Do you realize we've got 250 million years of coal?" — Washington, D.C., June 8, 2005
"We have enough coal to last for 250 years, yet coal also prevents an environmental challenge." — Washington, D.C., April 20, 2005
