Seizing on a newly released audio tape picked up by the Drudge Report, Sarah Palin took the opportunity here in coal country to accuse Barack Obama of "talking about bankrupting the coal industry." "He said that, sure, if the industry wants to build coal-fired power plants, then they can go ahead and try, he says, but they can do it only in a way that will bankrupt the coal industry, and he's comfortable letting that happen," Palin said. "And you got to listen to the tape."
The audiotape Palin was referring to was recorded by the San Francisco Chronicle in a Jan. 17 interview.
"Why is the audiotape just now surfacing?" Palin asked, leading someone in the crowd to shout, "Liberal media!"
"This interview was given to San Francisco folks many, many months ago," Palin said. "You should have known about this, so that you would have better decision-making information as you go into the voting booth."
In the audiotape, Obama reiterated his call for a cap and trade system on carbon and greenhouse gases. "So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can," Obama said. "It's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted."
An Obama spokesperson said that Obama's remarks were taken out of context and pointed out that in another part of the interview, Obama said that the idea of eliminating coal plants was "an illusion."
"The point Obama is making is that we need to transition from coal burning power plants built with old technology to plants built with advanced technologies--and that is exactly the action that will be incentivized under a cap and trade program," the spokesperson said. "We know that additional work is necessary to develop and deploy these technologies. That is why Obama has argued for a robust funding program for carbon capture and sequestration. It's strikingly similar to what McCain has said (in fact McCain goes a step further saying he wants to transition completely away from coal)."