Congressman Patrick McHenry has signed a discharge petition to force a floor vote in the U.S House of Representatives on H.R. 2208, the Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Act.
The bipartisan legislation written by Representatives John Shimkus (R-IL) and Rick Boucher (D-VA), would promote the use of clean coal-to-liquid technology to produce alternative energy sources.
"This is a bipartisan, common sense plan to utilize our country’s most abundant energy resource, in a clean and environmentally-safe way, to help move us toward energy independence and lower gas prices.” Congressman McHenry stated.
The United States possesses more than a quarter of the world’s coal reserves. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates the total identified American coal resources as being 1,600 billion tons, with an additional 1,600 billion tons estimated in areas not yet explored. The total U.S. coal reserves represent enough to last 250 years at current rates of use.
Congressman McHenry continued, “The United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal. Clean coal has the potential to break our costly dependence on foreign oil. Yet, it is being held hostage by the politics of Washington while the families of Western North Carolina are paying over $4 a gallon. The time to act is now.”
Clean coal technologies scrub the impurities and sulfur dioxide during refining process. The carbon dioxide emitted is then captured and sequestered, preventing it from being released into the atmosphere.
From an economic development perspective, continued advancements in clean coal technology hold the potential to create hundreds of thousands of good, high-paying Americans jobs.
“We need to take a balanced approach to a new American energy policy that increases the supply of American energy resources and invests in alternatives energy sources,” McHenry concluded.
###
