Coal Industry Spin Doctor Joe Lucas Refuses to Admit Coal Contributes to Global Warming

onMar 5, 2009 @ 10:39 PST

In an interview on CNN, Joe Lucas, the Vice President of the Americans for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) refused to admit that burning coal contributes to global warming.

This shouldn’t come as a shocker to anyone in the know, Lucas has spent the better part of decade running public campaigns that donwplay the realities of climate change. As you can see on his new website for ACCCE Lucas is trying hard to shed that past and wrap his latest coal lobby project in a blanket of green:

But a wolf can only hide in a sheep’s green clothing for so long before they slip.

Lucas stunningly refuses to admit in the CNN interview whether or not the burning of coal even contributes to global warming.

NARRATOR: Still, the industry refuses to say its plants contribute to global warming.

INTERVIEWER: Can you just answer that yes or no–If you believe that burning coal causes global warming?

JOE LUCAS (shaking head no): I don’t know. I am not a scientist.

Actually Joe, you don’t need to be a scientist to know that burning coal contributes 40 percent of U.S. CO2 emissions.

You can watch it online here on CNN.com (approximately 2:00 minutes in): No country for ‘coal’ men

This month we’re giving away FREE copies Keith Farnish’s new book Times Up: an uncivilzed solution to a global crisis.

Go here to find out more details about DeSmogBlog’s monthly book give-away.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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