Governors from leading energy producing states got a chance to vent
yesterday about congressional inaction on America's energy future.
At a daylong summit, officials from Kentucky and 10 other states called
on Capitol Hill to provide the detailed road map needed to guide U.S.
energy policy away from dependence on foreign oil.
Lexington Herald Leader
ROANOKE, W.Va. -- Governors from leading energy producing states got a chance to vent yesterday about congressional inaction on America's energy future.
At a daylong summit, officials from Kentucky and 10 other states called on Capitol Hill to provide the detailed road map needed to guide U.S. energy policy away from dependence on foreign oil.
Instead of honestly weighing the country's energy options, "the Congress has operated on its own prejudices," Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal said.
At the helm of the nation's top coal-producing state, Freudenthal echoed the summit's key theme: As long as coal remains this country's most abundant fossil fuel, it must play a central role in U.S. policy.
"It doesn't seem that Congress is willing to move quickly enough, or at all," said Governor-elect Steve Beshear of Kentucky.
The meeting's title, "Advancing Domestic Resources in an Era of Carbon Challenges," hints at coal's status as the chief culprit behind greenhouse gases. Also under fire in Eastern states is mountaintop removal mining. That method blasts away layers of earth to expose coal seams. The resulting debris buries the valleys below.
But the bulls-eye on coal also reflects the fact that nearly half the county's electricity comes from burning that fossil fuel, speakers said.
"The bottom line is, it will continue to produce a large share for many years," said Gov. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the nation's second-largest source of coal and the summit's host.
Manchin and other summit speakers included cleaner, renewable sources in their proposed energy mix -- to a point.
"We've got issues with renewables," said Bob Percopo, a senior vice president with AIG Global Marine & Energy. "They will always be a component but they will never be a major component."
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