Maryland Congressman Andy Harris talks about coal better than coal-state politicians.
From Politico:
Coal is getting a bad rap, Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) said Thursday, saying the government’s focus on carbon capture and sequestration misses out on other energy opportunities.
“Rarely … has a beneficial, life-improving resource upon which we depend so heavily been so maligned,” said Harris, chairman of the House Science Committee’s energy and environment subcommittee, during a hearing on DOE coal research. “Despite steadily improving efficiency and significantly cleaner processes, coal suffers from a reputation that leads many to think — wrongly — that we’d be better off without it.
“Considering that [Energy’s] goal is to find [carbon capture and sequestration] technology that only increases electricity costs by 30 percent, I have to question whether we should be investing taxpayer dollars on a technology that likely never will be commercially viable in the absence of carbon constraints that Congress has already rejected,” Harris added…
Harris also rightly questioned carbon capture and sequestration.
Readers will remember that 10 days ago, Congressman Harris was our Hero of the Day.
Indeed, there is coal mining in western Maryland. In fact, there is a significant new mine proposed that will, of course, take years to get into production because of all the “automatic” protests and routine use of every available road-block by the enviro-extremeists. (I am personally aware of this project as a co-worker of mine is a landowner who has coal rights and wants to see this mine develop.) The runaway Owebama EPA can’t be reeled in fast enough!
Coal has become an excellent and environmentally sound choice for power generation….
Perhaps, but there certainly is no coal mining where Harris is from on the Eastern Shore.
If I’m not mistaken coal mines exist in western Maryland.