Coal group links Clinton to climate rule, cap-and-trade

A new coal industry campaign is trying to link presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to President Obama’s controversial environmental policies.

The video and memo labels the Obama administration’s new carbon dioxide limits for power plants as “Obama/Clinton Cap and Trade II” in an attempt to blame Clinton for both the rule and the carbon cap-and-trade legislation that failed to pass Congress in 2010.

{mosads}“Last month President Obama released illegal energy regulations dressed up as his failed cap-and-trade energy plan of 2010,” the video, released Tuesday by the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), says.

“Hillary Clinton has vowed to ‘defend’ and ‘build on’ President Obama’s carbon emissions regulations.”

It warns that many Democratic lawmakers who voted in 2009 to pass the House version of the cap-and-trade bill were “slaughtered” in the 2010 midterm elections.

“This illegal regulation is a dressed-up version of the unpopular ‘cap and trade’ legislation from five years ago with a new name meant to deceive the public,” an accompanying memo from the coal group says.

Coal stands to lose more than 20 percent of its market share as an electricity source by 2030 under the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new climate rule, which cuts the power sector’s carbon emissions 32 percent by 2030. But the EPA expects that coal will remain a dominant source of fuel for power.

The coal industry has been among the most vocal opponents of the rule.

The memo cites a Rasmussen Reports poll from August finding that 56 percent of likely voters believe the rule would increase energy costs.

But other surveys have found different results. For example, a League of Conservation Voters poll found that six in 10 voters support the rule.

The regulation differs significantly from a cap-and-trade plan, although individual states are allowed to use cap-and-trade to meet their specific emissions targets.

The coal group is promoting the video to journalists and is not planning to run it as an advertisement.