Of all the GOP candidates, Rick Perry has been perhaps the most fervently dismissive of the reality of human-caused climate change. So why does his energy plan include a provision for "clean coal" technology, which is used to capture carbon dioxide and pump it underground?
Confusion in Perry's assessment of the climate and energy nexus extends to his energy plan, which says that "we must continue to invest in clean coal technology through research and development tax incentives." If, as Perry has claimed, climate change is a baseless hoax, it makes no sense that he should advocate for a technology explicitly designed to capture and sequester carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants for the sole purpose of averting the warming effect of those emissions.
The logical conclusion would be that Perry and his campaign don't even know what "clean coal" technology is. Maybe Perry just figures that sticking the word “clean” in there will help his insatiable coal hunger go over better with voters. But in that case he should probably go for a positive adjective that doesn’t ALREADY MEAN SOMETHING, like maybe “delicious coal” or “sexy coal.”
