Reid’s frank remark

Sunday, July 13, 2008 | 2:09 a.m.

Aside from presidential candidates, there aren’t many politicians in Washington who are in the spotlight more these days than Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

The Nevada Democrat makes the news on a regular basis with his refreshing straight talk. That’s one of his most appealing qualities as a politician and it clearly makes a lot of conservative commentators uncomfortable. There is a certain enjoyment in watching them squirm.

The latest example occurred this month when, in the context of discussing global warming and the need to limit use of fossil fuels, he uttered the thought that “coal makes us sick.” Suddenly, every apologist for the coal mining lobby from here to Appalachia was in a lather.

How dare the senator suggest that someone could get sick from coal? Didn’t he get the memo on the myth of black lung disease? About those old black and white newsreels of sick-looking coal miners from West Virginia, that was all a Hollywood act.

Let’s get real. Human beings have not yet evolved to the point where they are immune to coal exposure. As Lisa Mascaro and Phoebe Sweet reported in the Las Vegas Sun on Thursday, the American Lung Association says coal-fired power plants are among the nation’s biggest polluters. The association backs that up with chilling statistics showing that the plants lead to 24,000 deaths a year, 500,000 asthma attacks and nearly 40,000 heart attacks.

The coal industry and their mouthpieces in the media dispute the negative depictions, but when it comes to credibility, the lung association wins hands down.

Reid, to his credit, opposes new coal plants in Nevada. He knows that coal exposure makes people sick and he had the guts to say it on the record. When it comes to issues of global warming and fossil fuels, America could use more frank talk from politicians such as Reid.