Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV)

December 9, 2008

ROCKEFELLER SPEAKS AT WEST VIRGINIA ENERGY SUMMIT

Washington, D.C. – Senator Jay Rockefeller today delivered the following remarks via video at the West Virginia 2008 Energy Summit, which was held at Stonewall Resort and hosted by the West Virginia Governor’s Office, West Virginia Department of Commerce, and Southern States Energy Board.

ROCKEFELLER’S REMARKS:

This is an enormously important conference – with a first rate panel of experts. You are doing serious work that is central to the future of our state and the future of our country.

And I want you to know that if the Senate weren’t in session, if I weren’t dealing with the economic crisis and meeting with President-elect Obama’s nominees to be Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of Commerce – that I would be right there with you.

I can only do my job and be fulfilled in my mission if I am a part of any serious conversation about the future of coal in our state and in our nation.

And I think there may be an announcement – maybe even as soon as this week -- that I will be elected by my colleagues to chair the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee. That committee deals explicitly with climate change and with the technology and research needed to achieve energy security.

West Virginia’s energy future and energy jobs are, and will always be, front and center for me.

Here’s what I know. And this is exactly what I understand you are working on at this conference that I so regret that I am unable to attend.

We’re looking intensely at coal, of course, since it must be a vital part of any energy solution for America.

We’re also looking at the opportunities we have with new possibilities for alternative transportation fuels, hydrogen fuel, shale, wind and natural gas.

We also have to consider how energy affects our national security.

And we must tackle the very real issue of climate change.

You know – like I do – that each of these issues intersects in a way that will forever impact our future.

We know that we must have a full-court press on energy, and that we need a plan that puts every option on the table – because this is the most pressing and significant undertaking of our time.

With the election behind us and a new year ahead of us, energy has to be – and it will be – a top priority for both the Congress and President-elect Obama.

And I’ll do everything I can through my role on the Commerce Committee to make sure that each of the issues important to West Virginia – including clean coal – is a part of every discussion here in Washington.

I’m a firm believer – and have been for a very long time – that West Virginia coal has the potential to put our state in the driver’s seat of a major national and international energy initiative.

And we certainly have the workforce, the resources and the drive to make it happen.

I’ve been saying for many years that I’m positive we can tackle the new technologies of coal-to-liquids, carbon capture and sequestration.

These technologies are the key to coal’s future and to having a sustainable domestic fuel source for centuries to come.

That’s why I recently fought to make sure Congress passed a whole host of energy and clean coal provisions in the tax extenders bill – which is now law.

And I’m also working on a bill that absolutely must be a part of our ongoing work on energy. This legislation – the Future Fuels Act – would create a laser-focused, public-private effort to achieve large-scale carbon capture and sequestration. And I’ll be talking with the Treasury and Commerce Secretaries about this when I meet with them.

The forces against coal are formidable but with the right clean coal technologies, and all the ideas we’re focusing on today, West Virginia can offer its own solutions to what is both an American and global problem.

I have every confidence that we will succeed, and I’ll do anything it takes to make that happen.

Again, I commend each of you on this important gathering of minds, and I thank you for your time.

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ROCKEFELLER SPEAKS AT WEST VIRGINIA ENERGY SUMMIT