Courier-Journal columnist David Hawpe has endorsed Al Gore's call for civil disobedience to the production and use of stop coal -- even clean coal.
In a speech at the recent Clinton Global Initiative meeting in New York, the former vice president urges adopting the tactics of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Gore said, "If you're a young person looking at the future of this planet and looking at what is being done right now, and not done, I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration" (technology that may not be perfected for many years, without which coal will continue contributing to global warming).
Actually, protesters already are out there, just across the state line in Virginia in Wise County, where 11, 12 or 14 (the accounts vary) were arrested after chaining themselves to steel drums. They were attempting to disrupt the building of a Dominion Virginia 580-megawatt coal-fired plant, for which ground was broken last month.
How about if Hawpe chains himself to one of Al Gore's mansions. As USA Today noted,
Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.
The technology to use coal without harming the environment is on the brink of helping our nation achieve energy independence -- and bringing good jobs to Kentucky. And yet David Hawpe wants us to chain ourselves to the steel drums. Clearly, Hawpe shares Barack Obama's vaunted "judgment."
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