"What we're seeing, particularly with Obama's statement, is that there's a race to the top among the Democratic candidates for the strongest position on how to solve the climate crisis," said Ilyse Hogue, campaign director for the liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org, which has been waging a petition drive opposing the coal legislation.
"If Obama in fact goes along with the position he articulated, then that puts him ahead of where he was," she said.
The change by Obama reflects the political high-wire act facing Democrats as climate change emerges as a top-tier election issue.
In addition to Illinois, coal is a dominant political force in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, all key electoral states.
Although former Vice President Al Gore has helped make global warming a galvanizing issue for Democrats -- particularly among likely voters in next year's primaries -- many party strategists recall warily how, in 2000, Republicans successfully used Gore's support for environmental regulations to woo traditionally Democratic coal workers to the GOP fold. That helped send West Virginia's decisive electoral votes to George W. Bush.
"To us, the coal issue is a real test about whether the presidential candidates are serious about addressing the climate crisis or whether they're playing politics with the future of the planet," said Ted Glick, coordinator of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council, an advocacy group that this week began distributing a petition criticizing Obama's support for the coal industry plan.
"You claim to be a different kind of politician and yet you push legislation that does not have America's best interest at heart," the petition says.
Although some activists welcomed Obama's changed stance on the coal legislation, industry officials on Tuesday were trying to make sense of his apparent change of heart.
"He's trying to walk a fine line, trying to be a good Democrat but at the same time recognizing that not only is Illinois well-served but he's serving the country with these incentives that could really stimulate the industry," said Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Assn.
Popovich said the industry had been impressed by Obama's "willingness to take a stand that's unpopular with some of his party's constituents."
He called the senator's new statement the result of a "jihad" waged by some environmentalists against the coal industry.
"Clearly they are trying to intimidate Obama from doing something sensible," Popovich said.
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peter.wallsten@latimes.com
Times staff writer Seema Mehta in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
