The politics of coal

摘要

Earlier this week Lexington stood in a grimy coal-processing plant in West Virginia, dodging thundering lorries and watching a Republican politician passionately addressing an invisible crowd on the subject of Barack Obama's "war on coal". It was a curious scene in several ways. The speaker was Shelley Moore Capito, a member of the House of Representatives. The occasion was the eve of a primary contest to select the Republicans' Senate candidate this autumn (which Mrs Capito won). The congresswoman spoke at a lectern in a smart dress, blazer and houndstooth-patterned pumps, in the centre of an empty expanse of crusty black dust and pools of filthy water. Her audience consisted of two coal-industry boosters there to offer a formal endorsement, two reporters (one of them your columnist), a clutch of campaign staff and a hired tv crew. Their satellite-truck rumbled nearby, beaming Big Coal's endorsement of her candidacy live and free of charge to local news stations.