Sen. John McCain is trying to persuade voters that he would do more as president to support clean coal technology than his opponent, but the political ads McCain is running in Virginia mislead voters on the issue, 9th District U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher said Wednesday.
“What we’re seeing is a pattern by the McCain campaign of distortion,” Boucher said during a conference call with reporters. “We’re seeing misleading ads, and independent fact-checkers have stated that these ads are misleading.”
Boucher, D-Abingdon, held the call in response to radio and television advertisements airing in four states that say Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama opposes clean coal technology. The claim has been labeled false by FactCheck.org, an independent Web site that checks political advertisements.
Boucher said that despite what the Republican candidate’s ads claim, “certainly in a comparison between McCain and Obama, Sen. Obama is the greater friend of coal.”
Boucher’s 9th District, which includes Patrick County and part of Henry County, includes seven southwestern counties whose economies rely heavily on the coal industry.
Boucher cited the Illinois senator’s support of an amendment to a Senate budget resolution for fiscal 2008 that added $200 million for carbon capture and sequestration technology. Obama was a sponsor of the bill, Boucher said.
“Carbon dioxide controls are coming. That’s now clear,” the congressman said. “And when those controls are online, the only way that electric utilities that are burning coal and industrial sources using coal ... will be able to continue to use (coal-based energy) is to capture the carbon dioxide from the coal combustion process and sequester it in the ground.”
The legislation Obama introduced provided funding for research and development into those technologies, he said.
In addition, Obama was the lead Democratic sponsor in the Senate of a measure that would start a coal-to-liquid industry in the United States, Boucher said.
“Coal-to-liquid would allow coal to be liquefied into a liquid fuel,” Boucher said. That fuel could be used in car and truck engines and could help lessen the nation’s dependence on foreign oil, he added.
In 2005, Obama voted for the Energy Policy Act, “the most important coal-related measure Congress has considered in decades,” Boucher said. That bill provided $1.8 billion in tax credits for clean coal technology. McCain, R-Ariz., voted against the bill, which passed. He has said he did so because it was full of breaks for oil companies.
Clean coal also is part of Obama’s energy plan, which, according to a release from Obama’s campaign, calls for investing in low-emissions coal plants and creating five “first-of-a-kind” commercial scale coal-fired plants with carbon capture and sequestration.
To support its claim, McCain’s ads highlight an exchange between Obama’s vice presidential running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Connecticut, and a woman standing among a line of people Biden was greeting in Ohio. As they talk, Biden can be heard saying, “No coal plants here in America” and “We’re not supporting clean coal.”
A voice-over then says, “No coal plants in America? No jobs in Virginia? No energy independence for America? It’s no surprise” and criticizes “Obama-Biden and their liberal allies” for opposing offshore drilling.
Boucher said Biden has spoken extensively about the campaign’s support for clean coal technology, and that his off-the-cuff comments in Ohio were part of a discussion about coal-burning plants in China. Biden said plants there need to be cleaned up, and the United States could invest in new technologies and sell them to China, Boucher said.
The McCain campaign’s suggestion that Biden does not support using those technologies here is false, the congressman said.
“It strains credibility to think we would be developing (clean coal technologies) here and not use them ourselves. It doesn’t pass the laugh tests in terms of logic,” he said.
Boucher said he wanted to “set the record straight” about Obama’s position on clean coal because of its importance to the nation and to his constituents in the 9th District.
The congressman said he does not think McCain’s ads have had an adverse effect in the region “as of this point, but if they’re not answered, they certainly will.”
To that end, Obama’s campaign launched a new television ad Wednesday that features a coal miner talking about Obama’s support for the industry. The ad will air in markets in Southwestern Virginia, Boucher said.
Despite the ads, Boucher said he believes Obama’s support is growing in Southwestern Virginia.
“I’ve noticed movement toward him in our coal-producing counties,” he said.
Seven headquarters in the region, thousands of volunteers going door to door, a field staff and a “general uptick in Sen. Obama’s popularity nationally I think are pulling him into a position here in Southwestern Virginia that will enable us to make a contribution to a statewide total to make sure he carries Virginia,” Boucher said.
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