CNN’s Ali Velshi Confuses Coal With Soap
CNN’s Ali Velshi Confuses Coal With Soap
On the date of the West Virginia primary, CNN senior business correspondent Ali Velshi appeared throughout the morning and afternoon, waving a lump of coal. In one segment yesterday morning, Velshi described the coal-to-liquids process:
It is a cleaner burning fuel in the end — now I get in a lot of trouble when I say this, because the blogs go nuts on this — I didn’t say coal was clean. I said that the fuel that is derived from coal happens to be a very clean-burning fuel. What happens prior to when it becomes gasoline can be very dirty.
As the Wonk Room reported, on April 25, Velshi said:
You see the signs for clean coal, 99 percent clean. I’m not 99 percent clean when I get out of the shower. . . I just look clean.
And then yesterday afternoon Velshi got excited:
Most people think of coal as a relatively dirty thing. You may have seen the ads on TV for 99.9% clean coal, that’s clean coal technology. Bottom line is people are split on the cleanliness of coal.
Watch it:
There are, in fact, no such ads, because even the coal industry isn’t willing to be that misleading about coal. Velshi seems to be confusing coal propaganda with the classic Ivory Soap slogan, “99 and 44/100% pure.”
Velshi asked for people to email suggestions about what “we should cover when it comes to energy.” Here are a few items not discussed in yesterday’s coalfest on CNN:
- Soot, arsenic, mercury, and acid rain pollution from coal
- Studies on the financial risks involved in new coal plants
- Mountaintop removal mining practices
- The amount of money CNN is getting from the coal industry
- The call from scientists for a moratorium on new coal-plant production
- Renewable energy such as wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, and hydropower
- Energy efficiency
- Developing transportation alternatives
- How coal executives have corrupted politicians
- The amount of money polluters spend to lobby Congress
- Labor practices in the coal-mining industry
- Increasing fuel economy standards
- Poverty and pollution in coal country
- The costs of ignoring global warming
Velshi’s email address is yourmoney@cnn.com.
4 Responses to “CNN’s Ali Velshi Confuses Coal With Soap”
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Dear CNN,
Ali Velshi recently asked Americans to e-mail suggestions about what you should cover when it comes to energy. Here are my 2 cents.
Instead of covering hyper-subsidized, over-profitting, PR bursting fossil fuel industries (especially ‘Clean’ coal), you should cover:
- Energy Efficiency (”preventable energy waste costs Americans hundreds of billions of dollars and the global economy more than $1 trillion a year, destabilizing the climate while producing no value“)
- Concentrated Solar Thermal (Provides base load power day and night)
- Wind power (DOE says wind can be 20% of US power by 2030)
Stop giving a voice to industries that are delaying action on climate change and poisoning american communities (watch Burning the Future on the Sundance Channel on Sunday at 3:35PM) and start focusing on the real solutions.
Thank you for your time,
Tommaso Nicholas Boggia
May 14th, 2008 at 4:51 pmClimate Change Advocacy Associate
Campus Progress, Center for American Progress
Ali, there’s something personal I would like to tell you. I watch you often on CNN and really admire you.
November 25th, 2008 at 2:15 amsl
Fix the regulations with the financial institutions.
Health Care for Everyone!
Fire The President & Paulson – and most of the rest of them. We have a Political Bubble!
Enforce all U.S. Constitutional & other U.S. laws.
Solves the mortgage problem; banks get large deposits; everybody gets health insurance; a new Ford or Chevy; etc… Other countries will be all want to do business with us.
This is like a reverse bankruptcy for all of us – especially us citizens.
Fix the system by throwing the wall street bums out – refund money ripped-off & send them to jail. Oh-yeh, Send our troops home & fix & defend our borders.
The best answer would be to that bailout money to be paid to every legal Social Security cardholder.
$700,000,000,000/300,000,000 USA population = $2,333.33 for every man woman & child in the USA. The best answer would be to that bailout money to be paid to every legal Social Security cardholder. Tax rebates won’t work.
Other countries investors would flock to the US – just what we need.
On short selling…hedges to your retirement funds!!! Less than 50% of all short trades are profitable. All shorts must buy to realize a profit. They provide a market to the buyers! So they balance & stabilize the market! Restore it.
Where is ‘The Magnificent Seven’ when we need them?
Robert
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:23 pmThe Solution to the current financial Crisis…
Distribute exactly $50,000 each (tax free, less what you might owe the IRS), 100% of our national debt. USA Fed to wire all funds to banks to distribute to legal Social Security cardholders – using eCheck to verify legal SS #’s
Put a 3% cap on annual inflation.
Everyone must open a savings account of at least $15,000 (and keep it for at least 5 years in the bank of their choice) as a condition of receiving the bonus.
Open trust account of $5,000 for children’s education (and/or keep it for at least 5 years).
Open trust account of $5,000 for healthcare (and/or keep it for at least 5 years).
Use the balance $25,000 for your mortgage; additional savings; etc. I.E. Spend it!
Fix the regulations with the financial institutions.
Health Care for Everyone!
January 23rd, 2009 at 2:26 pm