Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama tout "clean coal" to Ky., W. Va. voters

Global warming is less important to the voters of Kentucky and West Virginia than keeping their coal industry going. So the two Democratic candidates for president are playing down their plans for curtailing carbon emissions and playing up their support for "clean coal," according to a report from Reuters.

"In a bid to draw voters ahead of Democratic primaries in West Virginia on Tuesday and Kentucky on May 20, both candidates are playing up the ascendant role of commercially untested and so far economically nonviable ways of converting America's plentiful coal supplies into electricity without spewing massive quantities of heat-trapping greenhouse gases," the Reuters report says.

"We need some big investments right now in figuring out how to capture and store carbon dioxide from coal," Clinton told a rally in the rural town of Clear Fork on Monday, according to Reuters. Meanwhile, Reuters noted, "Obama's campaign has distributed flyers in Kentucky stating that Obama "believes in clean Kentucky coal." The flyers show a picture of giant barges carrying coal down the Ohio River.

--Craig Pittman