Keep coal fire burning
President Obama spoke of his "all of the above" energy strategy during the recent State of the Union address, but his actions tell a very different story.
Coal, America's most abundant fuel and the workhorse of our electricity supply, is being kicked aside. The president is pushing the Environmental Protection Agency to make it impossible to build new coal plants.
The EPA has proposed stringent rules limiting the amount of carbon dioxide that a new coal plant can release. These rules would force new plants to be equipped with carbon capture and storage technology that doesn't yet exist.
By law, the EPA can only require the implementation of technology that is viable and commercially available. To justify its new rules, the EPA is pointing to four coal projects that will use CCS. But none of these projects are of commercial scale and only one is under construction. That plant Mississippi plans to sell captured carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery. This is a promising concept, but is not replicable in most parts of the country.
The EPA knows that what it has asked for is unattainable. The president's all-of- the-above approach is just a natural gas and renewables strategy. These two resources provide less than half of the nation's electricity.
Mr. Obama's embrace of the shale gas revolution is correct. We have become the world's largest producer of natural gas and "fracking" is providing economic benefits and good jobs in many states, particularly in Pennsylvania. But putting all of our eggs in one basket, natural gas, is not prudent, and does nothing to improve competition among major energy sources.
Despite some progress , a lot of rhetoric and huge taxpayer funding, solar and wind energy still generate less than 4 percent of the nation's electricity. A balanced energy mix should be our target and we're going to need renewables, gas, coal, oil and nuclear energy - "all of the above."
Anti-coal ideology is driven by an obsession to reduce carbon emissions. The president and his allies seem to believe that if we stop building new coal plants and regulate existing plants out of operation, the rest of the world will follow. This is not going to happen. Coal is the fastest growing energy resource in the world.
China burns more coal than the rest of the world combined, and is building new plants at a breakneck pace. Europe, despite its large subsidies for renewable power, is also using more coal. Providing energy security and affordable power remain the primary focus around the world. The same should hold true for America.
It's time to implement a pragmatic and balanced energy policy that reflects global energy trends and the value of our vast coal and other resources.
The same intensity the president is using to promote renewable energy should be used to ensure that we become global leaders in advanced clean-coal technology. Addressing climate change must recognize that coal is here to stay, and we need to keep improving it.