WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, made the following statement today as part of an Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee hearing entitled, “H.R. 6258, the Carbon Capture and Storage Early Deployment Act:”
“Thank you Mr. Chairman. I appreciate having the opportunity to be an original sponsor of this legislation. It may surprise some people but I do believe that we need to develop the technology to capture and store or convert CO2 regardless of the outcome of the global warming debate. I’m a believer in efficiency and technology advance and if we can use this vehicle to have the United States of America and our private and public institutions develop such technology, it can’t be anything but a good thing for the world community.
“My guess is that this is the only bill that might actually become law this year. We’re still engaged in a very vigorous debate about the overall global warming issue. But in the middle of this, your leadership, Chairman Boucher, along with Mr. Whitfield and Mr. Shimkus, has pointed to a pathway forward so that all members, regardless of their position or party affiliation can work together to do something that’s good for the economy. … I have a formal statement I’ll submit for the record but again, I’m proud to be a sponsor and look forward to perfecting the bill in open markup and onto the floor.”
Rep. Barton’s formal statement:
“Mr. Chairman, I commend you for holding this hearing and for your leadership on the legislation we are considering today, H.R. 6258, to expedite commercial-scale advanced coal technology.
“I am proud to be a co-sponsor of H.R. 6258, legislation which will help private sector innovators develop systems to capture and store, or capture and convert, carbon dioxide from coal combustion. I am particularly interested in carbon conversion technology because it may offer valuable alternatives to deal with post-combustion CO2.
“Coal is America’s most abundant energy resource. It generates half our electricity today, and can be converted into liquid fuels for transportation. However, the new issue of carbon dioxide emissions stands between Americans and the prospect of getting more energy from our own coal at a price that working families can afford to pay. We need coal plants, but they’re being cancelled across the country over concerns about possible limitations on carbon emissions. Your legislation will move us past the current stalemate. If we can make carbon-capture economic, we can leave most of these unworkable cap-and-trade proposals behind. We will also be positioned to export this new technology to developing nations around the world.
“Mr. Chairman, I am particularly pleased that you recognize that technology innovation is the path to meeting our country’s growing energy needs as we address concerns about climate. Your leadership on this is crucial. With respect to cap and trade, you and I may disagree on whether technological innovation is a policy substitute, which I believe it is, versus a policy supplement, but I hope that this will not be an impediment to us working together on this important bill.
“I welcome today’s witnesses and look forward to a dialogue with them. I am eager to hear from industry about what commitments they are poised to make in this technology development effort, and about the progress and timetable they foresee.
“I am committed to keeping the focus on technology innovation, where it belongs today. I would be remiss, however, to not at least reiterate one point, which is this: Nearly all proponents of cap and trade talk about the need for a ‘price signal’ on carbon. It seems to me that $4 gasoline and $13 natural gas constitute plenty of signal. I know that the people I run into at the gas stations in Texas have seen the signal because they tell me so. But if the price signal that everybody else sees isn’t high enough for the cap-and-traders, I want to know how much more they have in mind.
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back the balance of my time.”
