all hail kenneth bone! mr. bone was the fellow in a red sweater who rose to his feet near the end of sunday night<u+2019>s town hall debate. people are having a fine old time riffing on his genial manner, his festive sweater and the disposable camera he used to snap pictures after the event. but here<u+2019>s the thing about mr. bone: he asked a smart question about energy policy , an issue largely overlooked in the debates so far, which in turn elicited from hillary clinton a mention of climate change, an issue that has been completely overlooked. the question mr. bone asked might have been expected from an operator at a coal plant in illinois, which he is. essentially, he wanted to know what the candidates would do to meet the nation<u+2019>s energy needs in an environmentally friendly manner without throwing a lot of people out of work. mr. trump<u+2019>s answer came straight from the tea party playbook: the environmental protection agency is <u+201c>killing our energy business.<u+201d> hillary clinton, he added, <u+201c>wants to put all the miners out of business.<u+201d> he<u+2019>d figure out ways to make the coal under american soil last another 1,000 years. mrs. clinton said she would not <u+201c>walk away<u+201d> from the job losses among miners and workers at coal-fired power plants. but she said she couldn<u+2019>t walk away from climate change, either. (addressing that problem means more clean energy, less coal and more suffering in coal country.) mr. bone, a plain-spoken guy, managed to get plain, if wildly different, responses on issues that were in danger of disappearing. follow the new york times opinion section on facebook and twitter (@nytopinion), and sign up for the opinion today newsletter . a version of this editorial appears in print on october 11, 2016, on page a22 of the new york edition with the headline: in praise of mr. bone. today's paper | subscribe
in praise of kenneth bone
robert b. semple jr.