Visit to National Energy Technology Lab

Audio clip

WDUQ: Good afternoon. Fifty degrees at 12:30. I’m Kevin Gavin with WDUQ News Update during Day to Day.

Denmark’s Ambassador to the U.S. along with the Ambassador from Slovakia were in Pittsburgh to learn about energy research. They toured the National Energy Technology Lab in South Park. Denmark’s Ambassador, Friis Petersen says he was impressed by what he saw at the lab.

Ambassador Petersen: The state of art research and development that is taking place here and the way that it is meant to be commercialized is really key to finding some of these many ways in which we have to solve the climatic changes, but also the need for having a more secure energy supply and more energy efficient application.

WDUQ: The tour was led by U.S. Deputy Under Secretary for Europe and Eurasia*, Kurt Volker who says European countries have set goals for greenhouse gas reduction but haven’t yet figured out how to do it.

PDAS Volker: The United States hasn’t gone down that road of asserting those kind of large numbers for reductions. What we’ve done is we’ve put our investment into the science and technology aimed at changing the way economies function, which will have the most significant results over time, whether or not you set the target.

WDUQ: Secretary Volker says the idea is to look at technologies that can help the world break the link between economic growth and greenhouse gas production. Volker says as the research spins out of the labs in South Park, they need to land not only in the U.S. but also overseas.

 
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*Kurt Volker’s correct title is Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs.