Some Kentucky politicians, notably Sen. Jim Bunning, propose to give taxpayer money to coal companies to help them build plants that convert coal to liquid fuel. Bunning’s statements, typically, are the most ludicrous of all, suggesting that we should unlock the goodness in our hearts to help the industry that has done oh so much for you and me.

The local newspaper didn’t print my letter to the editor on this subject, so I’m moved to post it here. I responded to an article written by Bunning:

In this newspaper Jim Bunning recently said that coal is clean, cheap, and—God bless it—patriotic.

I will try to make this simple enough that even a Senator can understand. Coal is a hydrocarbon. That means hydrogen and carbon. Hydrogen burns (the Hindenburg was filled with it, remember). Carbon doesn’t. So when you extract energy from coal, whether by burning it or separating the hydrogen, you’re left with carbon, which instantly bonds with oxygen to form the poisonous gas carbon dioxide.

That carbon dioxide doesn’t go away. It can’t be neutralized or destroyed. If we don’t release it into the atmosphere, we have to store it forever. And if there’s one thing Kentuckians don’t need, it’s another storage site for toxic gas.

Cheap, granted; patriotic, maybe; but clean? Not coal, not now, not ever.

Our governor, who never met a bad idea he didn’t like, proposed that the legislature convene in emergency session to get that money to the coal barons ASAP. My response, which the newspaper printed today:

Remember Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan, the New York pilot who started for California and landed in Ireland in 1938?

I was reminded of him after reading of state legislators’ interest in liquid coal.

While the world’s major nations contemplate a carbon tax to force a shift away from deadly high-carbon fuels, a few politicians want to shift Kentucky from gasoline to, of all things, an even higher carbon fuel.

A Kentucky judge once noted that the government can’t sell the people a mule and call it a horse, even if they need a mule. We need to reduce carbon, not increase it. Coal, like it or not, is a high-carbon fuel, and rhetoric can no more change that fact than it can change a mule into a horse.

Promoting carbon, in today’s climate, is the wrong way. Corrigan would be proud.

Congress rejected Bunning’s federal legislation, which removed the theoretical justification for Kentucky’s cash giveaway program. You might think that this would result in a loss of political support for the plan. Ha! The governor is expected to summon the legislature next week.