In a meeting held this week, the Republican National Convention platform committee unanimously adopted an amendment to add the word “clean” to a list of describers about coal. The amendment was offered by Texas delegate David Barton, who made the motion to “insert the adjective ‘clean’ along with coal, particularly because the technology we have now.” Barton did not specify what technology he was referring to or whether he meant carbon capture and storage (CCS), a method of capturing carbon emissions and storing them underground, which has proven cost prohibitive for most U.S. coal-fired power plants..
After the adoption of the amendment, the RNC draft platform statement on coal now reads: “The Democratic Party does not understand that coal is an abundant, clean, affordable, reliable, domestic energy resource.”
The Republican convention will be held in Cleveland, July 18th to the 21st.