Alternative Energy Setback: Obama + Coal-to-Liquid Supporters Disappoint

If you looked at the front page of today's (Tuesday) NY Times, you noticed the article on coal-to-liquid technology.  It's a big deal.  Bigger than the Texas coal plants and TXU problem.  The blogoshere has erupted and it looks like Obama Barack showed his true colors.  I've noticed a few articles worth mentioning to get up to speed on the issue (all on the pro-green side):

• Lawmakers Push for Big Subsidies for Coal Process [NY Times]
• America To the World: Drop Dead, We Have Coal. [Treehugger]
• Barack Obama's Dirty Politics [Marc Gunther - Fortune]
• Clean Coal: The Myth Ends Today [EcoGeek]

Here's the gist: a powerful, bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats is pushing for billions of dollars of subsidies on the controversial coal-to-liquid production plants.  We're talking about loan guarantees for 6-10 major coal-to-liquid plants at a cost of $3 billion per plant.  Coal companies are calling the technology an "alternative" because it's not coming from the Middle East.  In that sense, it's true.  Coal is plentiful and cheap in the United States and its supporters include Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Rick Boucher (D-Va.), Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), and Larry Craig (R-Wy.).