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Think Progress points to the full-page ad in today’s New York Times stating that tonight’s Democratic presidential debate on CNN is sponsored by the “clean coal” industry. Wow. Aren’t euphemisms fun? Sort of the magical realism of the political world. According to Think Progress, the coal industry’s “clean” agenda would have us:

• Expand coal production by using government-funded technology to convert coal to vehicle fuels, thereby producing twice as much global warming pollution as gas production, and consuming huge amounts of water to boot. • Crank out as many new power plants as possible before limits on greenhouse gas pollution take effect. Nearly 150 coal-fired power plants are already on the drawing board. • Delay and weaken any limits on CO2 pollution, even though scientists tell us we need a 20% reduction by 2020, and an 80% reduction in 2050 [actually, we need more than that and faster too]. • Convince Congress to give coalies free “allowances” to emit greenhouse gases rather than force coal-fired plants to buy them in cap-and-trade auctions.

The coal industry’s sponsorship of tonight’s CNN debate in Las Vegas appears to be an attempt to pressure Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who has stood firmly against the construction of three proposed major coal-fired power plants in his home state: REID: “I want to help Nevada become the national leader in renewable energy and energy independence. We have vast wind, solar and geothermal resources and we’re wasting energy every day we’re not tapping into those free, clean, and reliable power sources… As proposed, these coal plants are old news, the way of the increasingly distant past.”

Julia Whitty is Mother Jones’ environmental correspondent. You can read from her new book, The Fragile Edge, and other writings, here.