Senators Meet With Coal Developers

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit in on a round table discussion hosted by Senators Thomas Carper (D-DE) and George Voinovich (R-Ohio) on behalf of the League of Conservation Voters. The topic of the discussion was the future of coal in the context of H.R. 2454, the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) and panelists from across the country testified about their knowledge of developing clean coal technologies.

During the discussion, panelists stressed the unavoidable need for coal in our country’s energy future. Ben Yamagata, Executive Director of the Coal Utilization Research Council, echoed the other speakers by saying our country cannot be powered on increased efficiency alone, and Senator Voinovich said any bill that doesn’t include coal is “fundamentally short sided.”

While LCV believes that America's energy future should focus on clean, renewable sources of power like wind and solar, all agreed that lawmakers need to place a high importance on developing carbon capture and sequestration technology since no coal production is "clean" and sequestration is possibly decades away from fruition.

Coal is essential to our energy future and therefore, the development of clean coal technologies is as well.
The timelines for developing clean coal technologies are too rushed in the House bill; CCS technologies shouldn’t expected until at least 2020.
There needs to be a level of certainty for developers that their product will be in demand and the market will exist.
To speed up the development process and make the United States a true player the CCS industry, the US must start working with China.

The Senate version of the American Clean Energy & Security Act is currently undergoing committee mark-ups. Continue to check on www.lcv.org and www.actgreen.com for updates on the bill’s progress.

Comments (2)

mtuckey

Kelly, thanks for sharing. I have to disagree with the clean coal camp, having lived in Appalachia and seen the impact of mountaintop removal and pollution on our beautiful mountains.

I'm not against using R & D money to support new technologies, but coal brings with it other problems besides carbon, for one thing its a non-renewable resource, for another, its causing a huge strain on the ecosystems where its extracted. The fact that carbon capture technology is decades away is also problematic.

It seems to me a ruse to get some of our "green money" for the same old "dirty coal."

Posted by mtuckey | July 21, 2009 8:48 AM

Posted on July 21, 2009 08:48

Nora Thomason

I agree with mtuckey - 'clean coal' is really an oxymoron. But I am glad that it's being discussed and brought to the fore.

Posted by Nora Thomason | July 21, 2009 2:26 PM

Posted on July 21, 2009 14:26

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