Carbon Sequestration

The Hill’s CongressBlog

Yesterday we heard from Vice President Al Gore about his views on Global Warming. During his testimony, he said that he believes that no new coal plants should be built in the U.S. unless they are carbon-capture ready. A carbon capture-ready plant, without actually capturing carbon, is configured differently than non-carbon capture-ready plant, and is much more inefficient. This amounts to increased carbon emissions until the carbon capture equipment is installed. Yet, the recently released MIT Coal Study tells us that carbon capture is not credible until it has been commercially demonstrated -- and it hasn't been.

With all due respect to the Vice President, I hear from my constituents every day that electricity prices are too high. ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, has said that unless new generation capacity is built in Texas, we will not have enough electricity to ensure reliability within the next 5-10 years. I believe that we need to keep the lights on, while continuing to invest in technology -- and demonstration.