Companies backing the idea of "clean coal" funded a major advertisement today in a bid to build on momentum from the State of the Union address.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a trade group of coal companies, coal-fired utilities and railroads, bought a spot on washingtonpost.com's home page. A large ad on the right side featured an orange electric plug coming out of a piece of coal and the slogan "getting our economy back on track means keeping energy costs affordable."

The ad kicks off year four of a campaign to persuade lawmakers and the public that coal with carbon capture and sequestration, or CCS, should be part of the country's energy future. The group has spent upward of $37 million annually on ads.

ACCCE picked today to launch the washingtonpost.com spot because of President Obama's speech and anticipation he would talk about clean energy.

"The day after the State of the Union there's a lot of activity," said ACCCE spokeswoman Lisa Camooso Miller. "We had every expectation the president would make mention of energy and clean coal technology specifically.

"It's important for us to remind people what is at stake, what kinds of things could be at stake if we did not have low-cost electricity," Miller added, saying that the group wants to remind decisionmakers that coal is crucial to a healthy economy.

In his speech, Obama talked about coal and said that "clean-energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean-energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market for what they're selling. Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all."

Coal has many allies in Congress, both Republican and Democrat. But some are prepared to fight CCS as part of a clean energy bill.

"We don't believe that clean energy should be redefined to include so-called clean coal," said Mike Palamuso, spokesman for the League of Conservation Voters. "It's unproven and expensive.

"We absolutely do believe clean energy is part of our economic recovery, but it must be truly clean energy sources and not along a path that further subsidizes dirty energy sources," Palamuso added.

ACCCE said its top lobbying focus is on U.S. EPA and stopping that agency from acting before Congress in regulating greenhouse gas emissions. It is also lobbying on any legislation targeting carbon emissions.