Daylight for the Progressive Movement

Good for Barack Obama for reconsidering his play to wealthy state interests in favor of the larger principle of cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

With pressure mounting on Democratic presidential candidates to adopt hard-line positions on curbing global warming, Sen. Barack Obama on Tuesday backtracked from his long-held support for a controversial plan to promote the use of coal as an alternative fuel to power motor vehicles.

The Illinois Democrat made his announcement with little fanfare — in a dryly worded and technical-sounding e-mail sent late in the day from his Senate office to environmental advocacy groups — and did not mention the issue during an appearance at a Brentwood gas station, described in a new Times blog, designed to shore up his green bona fides with a renewed call to nationalize California's ambitious goals for reducing carbon levels in fuel [...]

"Senator Obama supports research into all technologies to help solve our climate change and energy dependence problems, including shifting our energy use to renewable fuels and investing in technology that could make coal a clean-burning source of energy," the e-mail said. "However, unless and until this technology is perfected, Senator Obama will not support the development of any coal-to-liquid fuels unless they emit at least 20% less life-cycle carbon than conventional fuels."

Coal-to-liquid as it stands right now is a horrible idea, worse than nuclear power because it is a dangerous pollutant without improving the carbon footprint. It's good that Obama reconsidered. But it's better that the progressive movement could get out the truth on the issue and actually change the debate. That Sen. Kerry went to a state side to announce his opposition to coal-to-liquid shows exactly how powerful this progressive movement is becoming in creating conventional wisdom. The paradigm is really starting to shift, and for the first time in a while I feel that regular people are actually being listened to.

UPDATE: See also Dick Durbin's diary on the Big Orange Satan, where he actually understands the issue of funding progressive infrastructure. We have a long way to go, but I see that we're breaking through the ice somewhat.

Also, it's hilarious to see the coal industry whining like babies:

Popovich said the industry had been impressed by Obama's "willingness to take a stand that's unpopular with some of his party's constituents."

He called the senator's new statement the result of a "jihad" waged by some environmentalists against the coal industry.

"Clearly they are trying to intimidate Obama from doing something sensible," Popovich said.

Yeah, sensibly destroy the planet and make us all have to use oxygen masks to breathe.

Sorry we weren't here for a while, but the average citizen is back. And we're talking. And we're not going away. And you and your rich corporate buddies are going to have to deal with it.