Obama Tells SF Chronicle He'd Bankrupt Coal Industry

Barack Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was willing to see the coal industry go bankrupt in a January 17, 2008 interview. An audio tape of Obama's comments was found by Newsbusters.org. This is the transcript of Obama's statement about bankrupting the coal industry:

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.

Let's see, the race in Ohio is still neck-and-neck. The coal industry is big there. I wonder how this is going to play there? Hmmmm?

UPDATE: Gov. Sarah Palin hits Obama hard on coal production.