Charleston Gazette, article: “At West Virginia resort, Bush praises coal power“:

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. - President George W. Bush touted coal during a speech at The Greenbrier hotel on Thursday, but didn’t stop there, as he promoted virtually every means of domestic power production as a pathway to energy independence.

“There is no more reliable source of electricity than coal,” Bush told the crowd of about 450 people gathered for the West Virginia Coal Association’s annual meeting.

“Coal is affordable. Coal is available right here. And coal provides jobs,” he said.

Charleston Daily Mail, editorial: “Bush is right about coal power“:

PRESIDENT Bush’s address on Thursday to the West Virginia Coal Association showed that for an oil man from Texas, he understands the state and the product it is most known for.

Unlike Democratic Senate Leader Harry Reid, Bush knows that coal is not making America sick.

Rather, the electricity that coal provides makes the American economy healthy and strong.

“One of the challenges is energy prices,” Bush said. “I’m a big believer in technology and innovation. Technology can change basic industry to keep us competitive and economically viable in the future.

“In order for this country to be economically competitive, we need to make sure we have a reliable supply of electricity. There is no more reliable source of electricity than coal. Coal is affordable and coal is available right here in the United States of America. Coal allows us to keep our prices reasonable, and it provides jobs.”

Bush is most correct. Coal not only provides jobs in the coalfields, but the cheap electricity it produces makes many other industries possible.

Transcript of remarks.

President Bush addressed the West Virginia Coal Association today. Transcript of his 30-minute remarks, which highlighted clean-coal technology:

This year — I mean, since we’ve been in office we’ve spent $2.5 billion on clean coal research. Why? Because it’s a good investment to make sure that an abundant supply of energy is available and is in use for a long time coming. That’s why we’re doing it.

This year alone we’ve requested nearly $650 million in the budget for advanced coal research. It’s the largest such request in 25 years. The funding is supported — is supporting the development of technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions that come from coal. This is something the industry wants the government to do. We want us to be on the leading edge of change. We want to be able to capture CO2. These advances obviously are going to make coal more environmentally friendly. It’ll make it easier for people to say, let’s use this abundant resource.

Today my administration announced $36 million for new carbon capture projects. In other words, it’s more than just research. We’re now beginning to get into the implementation stage of promising new technologies. And eventually the technology may allow us to prevent 90 percent of coal’s carbon emissions from being released into the environment.

Department of Energy news release.

Along with politically topical remarks about opening the OCS to energy development, the President also spent some time promoting nuclear power, including the government-industry partnership for more baseload power generation, Nuclear Power 2010.  A comprehensive approach, we like to say …