Climate Change Equivocator Meets Enviro-Prankster

Is pleading ignorance the new spin of the coal industry? A leading spokesman for the coal lobby told CNN today that he “didn’t know” if burning coal causes global warming, reports DeSmogblogger Kevin Grandia.When

Well, he couldn’t very well say “No.” Scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, not to mention energy CEOs like Jim Rogers, and conservative politicians like Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have taken that option off the table. An affirmative answer could fatally undermine the “clean coal” pitch. So “I don’t know” was probably the only palatable answer, even if it amounts to a “yes” in the court of public opinion.

A story-behind-the-story: I first discovered Grandia’s acumen when I stumbled on coal-is-clean.com, which sure looked like a pro-coal outpost with its slick graphics, patriotic headlines( “Clean coal powers America’s greatness”) and scientific claims (“Scientist: Coal is just a diamond in the rough”).

However, click on any link and you’re redirected to coal-is-dirty.com, with the latest news from the anti-clean coal crusade. I wondered who’s behind this anti-industry psy-war, and a quick search of networksolutions.com yielded the answer: Grandia, who blogs from Vancouver, British Columbia.