The USDA’s Rural Utilities Service (the successor to the Rural Electrification Administration) has decided to suspend new loans for coal fired power plants. While this may not make much of a dent in greenhouse gas emissions, it is a significant symbolic move. If the federal government is going to get serious about greenhouse gas emissions, it should reevaluate (if not eliminate) subsidies to carbon-intensive energy development, and this seems as good as any place to start.