The battle between coal and natural-gas interests over which fuel will be the centerpiece of the U.S. energy future took center stage on Capitol Hill Wednesday during two House committee hearings. Top executives from the nation's three largest coal producers warned against a "dash to gas" during the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Joel Kirkland of Environment & Energy Daily reports. Meanwhile, Texas oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens and other gas executives testified in favor of government support for the fuel before the House Ways and Means Committee.
Pickens "pushed for passage of pending legislation that would create tax credits for natural gas vehicles," Kirkland reports. The bill would "require half of the federal government's fleet to use compressed or liquefied natural gas and authorize the Energy Department to offer financing to manufacturers of light- and heavy-duty natural gas vehicles." Pickens holds a major stake in Clean Energy Fuels Inc., a company that specializes in converting fueling stations to accommodate natural gas and whose stock has almost tripled in price in the last year.
Conversely, top coal officials warned against a rush to gas, saying coal "remains the cheapest and most abundant fuel for power generation," Kirkland writes. Industry leaders pointed to the uncertainty of shale gas production as one reason the fuel doesn't measure up to coal. "We do not know the eventual cost, sustainability, deliverability, reliability and environmental impact of large-scale shale gas production," Gregory Boyce, president and CEO of Peabody Energy, said. While coal executives were hesitant to commit to an opinion about the science behind climate change, they did argue the government needed to support carbon-capture-and-sequestration technology because greenhouse gas emissions have become a social problem. (Read more)
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