Dec 11 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Ken Ward Jr. The Charleston Gazette, W.Va.


The latest version of a U.S. Senate bill to address global warming will be aimed at "ensuring a future for coal," according to a legislative framework released Thursday by a bipartisan trio of senators.

Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass.; Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said they wanted to announce a starting point for their discussions. A final bill isn't expected until spring, and they gave few details so there would be room for further negotiations.

A four-page outline cites recent statements by Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., that coal will remain a major part of the nation's energy mix, but that some form of climate change legislation likely will become law.

"We agree with both statements," the new climate framework document said. "However, due to current regulatory uncertainty, it is increasingly challenging to site new coal facilities, and utilities are switching to other fuel sources."

The document noted that one utility in North Carolina announced earlier this month that it plans to take 11 coal-fired generating units out of service because of carbon dioxide emissions.

"Coal's future as part of the energy mix is inseparable from the passage of comprehensive climate change and energy legislation," the document said. "We will commit significant resources to the rapid development and deployment of clean-coal technology, and dedicated support for early deployment of carbon capture and sequestration."

The senators said they hope to propose a near-term greenhouse emissions reduction "in the range" of 17 percent, equal to that contained in a bill passed earlier this year by the House.

A current Senate bill proposes a near-term emissions reduction of 20 percent by 2020.

American Electric Power has said it would support the 17 percent cut contained in the House bill, but other coal industry supporters -- including the United Mine Worker union and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., -- have said that is too stringent and won't give the industry time to perfect and deploy carbon-capture and storage equipment on the nation's power plants.

Also Thursday, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., announced that she would be among the Republican members of a bipartisan House delegation that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, R-Calif., is taking next week to the climate-change talks in Copenhagen.

Capito said in a statement that she remains "skeptical" that the Obama administration's goal of a near-term greenhouse emissions cut of 17 percent -- the same figure proposed in the latest Senate outline -- "is economically viable, particularly at a time of economic distress."

"We all share the goals of a greener energy future, with improved energy efficiency and a diverse energy portfolio," Capito said. "Yet we also have an obligation to work towards those goals in a way that doesn't devastate the economies in the communities we represent. From job losses to increased energy rates, emissions cuts and a new cap-and-trade regime are not without serious costs for families across our state."

Previously, Capito has been among the Republicans who have promoted potential cap-and-trade costs that academic experts whose work they cited said were being misquoted and exaggerated.

Also, despite a widespread scientific consensus, Capito has said she's "not convinced" that human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide are leading to global warming that will alter the planet's climate in ways that could be dangerous.

"I'm looking at the studies, and trying to understand it," Capito said earlier this year, "but I'm not convinced that the urgencies or the doomsday predictions are factual."

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kward@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.

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