No Questions On Global Warming Asked At CNN’s Coal Industry-Sponsored Presidential Debates
No Questions On Global Warming Asked At CNN’s Coal Industry-Sponsored Presidential Debates
In Democratic presidential debate last night, CNN once again failed to ask any questions about global warming. Perhaps not surprisingly, last night’s debate was sponsored by the coal front group Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC). Watch an ad for the debate:
ABEC also co-sponsored November’s CNN/YouTube debates in Nevada and Florida, at which no questions about global warming were asked.
These debate sponsorships are part of the coal industry’s aggressive “$35 million campaign in primary and caucus states to rally public support for coal-fired electricity and to fuel opposition to legislation that Congress is crafting to slow climate change.” ABEC has spent $1.3 million alone “on billboard, newspaper, television and radio ads in Iowa, Nevada and South Carolina.”
What is ABEC receiving in return for its support of CNN’s debate? Besides branding on tv and newspaper ads, ThinkProgress has learned that at November’s Democratic debate in Nevada, ABEC was given a special area near the debate’s entrance to hand out “clean coal” brochures. No other organizations were allowed to distribute materials in that prime area.
UPDATE: DeSmogBlog has also obtained an ABEC request for proposals for PR assistance in Nevada, in which it hopes to “image and credibility of ABEC” and increase “public awareness of the importance of coal to America’s energy mix.” One of the key ways it hopes to achieve these goals is through a “comprehensive presidential outreach program.”
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21 Responses to “No Questions On Global Warming Asked At CNN’s Coal Industry-Sponsored Presidential Debates”
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Why should the candidates answer questions on subjects they know nothing about?
Oh! Wait a minute!! Never mind.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:21 pmThey could have at least asked about old plants vs. new plants in Texas.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:22 pm*What* a surprise.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:35 pmgood lookin’ out, TP
i noticed that myself….
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:40 pmHmmm, it was a Dem debate. I’m surprised they didn’t raise this issue themselves… at the debate, before or after.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:40 pmAnd now for a small break from Plunger’s megaposts…
Hillary and Barack were adding plenty of hot air to the atmosphere last night.
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:41 pmNo Questions On Global Warming Asked At CNN’s Coal Industry-Sponsored Presidential Debates
Ya think?
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:49 pm“Clean Coal”….. Feh! Oxymoron of the highest degree.
Coal’s the friggin’ dirtiest (and most CO2-producing) fuel around.
Cheers,
January 22nd, 2008 at 5:55 pmYes, this is a sad state of affairs.
Why the hell do we need our debates sponsered in the first place. Whats next? Selling the naming right to the White House?
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 pmDon’t you know Repukian Christofascist logic? Coal doesn’t pollute, TREEs pollute.
Bush/Cheney
Hague Trials ‘09
Buck Fush
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:12 pm#12, kinda like the GM/GE/Walmart/BancCorp/ ShitforBrainsBowl.
January 22nd, 2008 at 6:45 pm…CNN once again failed to ask any questions about global warming.
Whoda thunk it?
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:11 pm23 million in contributions trumps all citizens wishes…everytime. Villagers have no shame. Like Biden. He sounds like the guy you want for president and a beer drinking buddy. Perfect on paper, except for the part where he is a hit man for big banks and finance.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:22 pmI bring him up just because his flaw is simple. The whoring of the survivors is much grosser. This election cycle is like a reverse Truman Show. We are all being played like Truman for an audience of the big money boys.
Edwards stopped playing by the rules, so his megaphone is turned off.
That’s really to bad. They could have asked Obama why he’s supporting coal-to-liquids technology, only initiative previously by the Nazi and South African Apartheid regimes.
CTL is really bad for global warming and Obama is a Senate leader for it.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:40 pmUgh. Let me try that again.
That’s really to bad. They could have asked Obama why he’s supporting coal-to-liquids technology, only initiatied previously by the Nazi and South African Apartheid regimes.
Coal-to-liquids is really bad for global warming and Obama is a Senate leader for it.
But, hey, one more chance for the Obamites to triangulate and then play holier than thou.
January 22nd, 2008 at 7:42 pm“Clean Coal”? Coal is a black dirty substance and can never be called clean in any way. Touch the stuff and your hands are black. Burn it and it releases vaporized mercury into the air you breath.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 pmWhen you have coal industry forking out big money to such front groups as ” Americans for Balanced Energy Choices”. As a mine owner or CEO you have to cut costs somewhere to afford these expenditures.
The cash cannot come out of the CEO’s pay or the owners profits.
I know, cut safety items in the coal mines and make the miners pay portions of their health care that they will be responsible using that health care and trim wages and downsize the work force.
They probably fund Rush’s show to stay on the air as well.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:40 am.
CORPORATE MEDIA holding a debate between Presidential candidates.
CONGLOMERATES sponsoring that debate of Presidential candidates.
Presidential candidates arguing over who is the better CORPORATE CEO.
CORPRATISM = FASCISM!
.
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:05 amWe are so screwed. It is very discouraging.
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:52 pmIs there any way to embed this video onto another site? This absurdity needs to be spread…
January 25th, 2008 at 10:16 amWhile we are flattered that there are some people out there who are convinced we can dictate the questions of the debate, the reality is we are merely a sponsor of advertising for the program. That’s it. Nothing more, nothing less. Just as purchasing an ad in a newspaper doesn’t skew the editorial content of that paper, the same is true here.
Rather than try to keep the issue of climate policy from coming up, as some folks have suggested we are doing, we are putting our effort to ensure that the issue does come up on the campaign trail. In fact, here’s the question we’d love to see get asked in one of the debates: “How do you plan to help America meet its growing demand for affordable and reliable electricity while addressing the climate change issue?â€
Isn’t that the question we’re all asking?
Sure, you can have a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; but if your plan means that America becomes more reliant on foreign energy resources and the cost of energy skyrockets, what kind of solution is that for the country?
We recognize that there is a shared commitment between electricity generators and those that they serve to reduce utility greenhouse gas emissions. The conversation now is about how best to do that in a way that meets the stated environmental goal, protects access to affordable, reliable energy and ensures energy security.
So let’s be as clear as possible — not only do we want the candidates to address questions regarding energy, environment and the economy, we can’t think of single more important question in the 2008 presidential debates.
January 25th, 2008 at 4:11 pm