Two weeks ago, this subcommittee we held a hearing on carbon capture and sequestration technology. We heard from a variety of witnesses regarding the status of the technology and what steps must be taken for full-scale deployment; we also heard about the potential costs.

Last week, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a report entitled "The Future of Coal," which examined the role of coal in a carbon constrained world. Much of the report focused on the technological, regulatory, and infrastructure challenges that stand in the way of commercial deployment of carbon capture and sequestration.

I had hoped that the Subcommittee would hold the carbon sequestration hearing after this report had been released so that we might have had the benefit of their expertise during that hearing.

I'm pleased to have the CEOs of many of our country's leading electricity companies before us here today to share their perspective.

In their written statements, most of our witnesses emphasize the importance of having carbon capture and sequestration technology commercially available in order for a cap and trade scheme to work.

As we've already learned, we are not at that point right now. Carbon capture and sequestration technology won’t be widely deployed until 2045. That is a long time to trade credits before there is a technological alternative to credits.

Since most of our witnesses today express support for a mandatory cap-and-trade system, I look forward to hearing how they reconcile their support with the current state of the technology.