Energy Secretary Moniz: 'There is no war on coal'

Aug 1 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Ben Wolfgang The Washington Times

Pushing back against congressional Republicans and others who claim the Obama administration is determined to cut coal out of the nation's energy mix, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Thursday told reporters that the fuel can continue to play a key role in powering the nation.

"There is no war on coal. We start by saying we must control CO2 emissions. So then, after many years of talking the talk ... the issue is walking the talk in terms of developing the technology to control those emissions," Mr. Moniz said at a breakfast briefing hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

His comments come just three days after Mr. Moniz, confirmed to his post about 10 weeks ago, praised clean-coal research during a speech at the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown, W. Va., one of the nation's largest coal-producing states.

While others in the administration have at times sounded downright hostile to coal, Mr. Moniz has taken a very different tack. Rather than eliminating coal -- which provides about 40 percent of the nation's electricity -- from the U.S. energy portfolio, Mr. Moniz instead has touted government-funded research into clean-coal technology.

Implementing regulations to limit greenhouse gas emissions, he said, becomes much more practical with better, cheaper technology.

"The goal of innovation in this business is to drive the cost down," he said. "Getting the cost down makes policy a lot easier."

Technology exists to capture CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants and other facilities, but its high cost has discouraged widespread use. Since Mr. Obama came into office in 2009, the federal government has invested about $6 billion into clean-coal technology projects, Mr. Moniz said. Private industry research also is ongoing.

Such research, and the technology it is expected to produce, are seen as vital for the survival of the U.S. coal industry. Proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations, for example, threaten to drive many coal-powered plants out of business unless they find a way to cheaply trap and store carbon emissions.

More broadly, Mr. Moniz said that "some sort of carbon policy" at the federal level is necessary to further drive down U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. He stopped short of calling for a tax on carbon emissions, a step many congressional Democrats and environmental groups want to see.

Mr. Moniz also deflected questions on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, the stalled Canada-to-Texas project that would transport oil through the U.S. heartland to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

Deciding whether the project will be approved, he said, rests not with him, but instead with President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.

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