Obama’s green cred
In a joint production, publications Grist and Outside are running Q&As with every presidential candidate. First up, Barack Obama.
Just one of the hard-hitting questions:
Q: You’ve received a lot of criticism from enviros of your support for coal-to-liquids technology. You recently shifted your position somewhat, but haven’t retracted it. Why?
A: I was always firm that if the life-cycle carbon emissions of coal-to-liquid were higher than gasoline, we couldn’t do it because it would contradict my position on reducing greenhouse gases. But I also believe that, because of the abundance of coal in the U.S., coal-based fuels could be a substitute for some of the oil we import from the Middle East, as long as we can reduce the resulting CO2 emissions to 20 percent below current levels from petroleum-based fuels.
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