In an April 2, 2017, story by Amy Davidson titled “Trump v. The Earth,” the New Yorker magazine ran a cartoon. It featured a cartoon President Donald Trump standing in front of coal plant smoke stacks with black smoke emerging from them.
ForTheRecord says: The New Yorker claims it is “fighting fake stories with real ones.” But in this instance, the “fake news” was the idea that coal plants have black smoke polluting the sky.
“The picture of the flue-gas stacks with black smoke coming out is a deliberate misrepresentation of what actually happens,” said Jason Hayes, director of environmental policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “No coal plant in the U.S. could ever have black smoke coming out of its flue gas stacks. It would be shut down immediately, fined, and forced into repair mode. … The stuff coming out of the flue-gas stack is primarily water vapor.”
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.