Washington (Platts)--16Apr2009

The US Chamber of Commerce on Thursday launched a campaign to promote
"green projects" it said could proceed if only environmental groups, local
governments and others would stop opposing sponsors' efforts to obtain sites
and permits for the ventures.

At a news conference at the chamber's Washington headquarters, officials
said permitting and siting disputes, activist opposition and other "green
tape" has killed or delayed "thousands" of coal, ethanol, natural gas,
nuclear, transmission and wind projects.

"We cannot mandate excessive reductions in greenhouse gases, fuel our
future and apply green technologies if we don't address the green tape,
excessive permitting requirements, and activist opposition," said William
Kovacs, the chamber's vice president for environment, technology and regulator
affairs.

The chamber launched "Project No Project," on expectations in Washington
that the Environmental Protection Agency soon will propose to regulate GHG
emissions under the Clean Air Act. The campaign will be featured in paid
advertisements in the Washington area and in social networking--publicity that
chamber officials said they hoped would reverse obstacles facing the projects.

The projects also are listed on a web site dedicated to the campaign.

Among the projects the chamber listed is Cape Wind -- a proposed 420-MW
wind farm offshore Massachusetts' Cape Cod, which local and federal officials
have opposed -- and the Department of Energy's proposed nuclear-waste
repository in Nevada, which the Obama administration said it would abandon
over safety concerns.

Other projects include a biomass power plant in Tallahassee, Florida,
that the chamber said would create 200 construction jobs, and a
waste-to-ethanol plant in San Pierre, Indiana, that it said could produce 27
million gallons of ethanol annually.

--Bill Loveless, bill_loveless@platts.com