Why Is Labour In Love With Coal?

Camilla Cavendish, The Times:

If we burn all the coal that is in the ground, and let its filthy emissions out into the atmosphere, we won't be feeling genteel guilt in 20 years' time, but raw fear ... It is extraordinary that the Government is trying to rush through a new generation of coal-fired power stations.

Memos leaked to Greenpeace show that Mr Hutton's servile officials have pretty much let E.ON write the contract for what will be the first coal plant for 24 years. The contract does not require that E.ON should make Kingsnorth Britain's first demonstration project for carbon capture and storage technology (CCS). Yet that would be the only possible justification for building it.

India and China are impressed by action, not words. Mr Brown has to make it clear that conventional coal has no future. We can't blame the Chinese for building coal-fired power stations if we do the same. No amount of bleating about plastic bags is going to make up for it.