WASHINGTON — For years, coal-country lawmakers have talked about turning the abundant natural resource into a fuel for motor vehicles.
The idea went nowhere.
But now it has taken on momentum, oddly enough, just as Congress appears ready to pass legislation to fight global warming. Even though coal has been attacked as a major culprit in climate change, lawmakers say a coal-derived fuel could solve another problem: U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
Coal production: A graphic accompanying an article May 10 in Section A about a congressional effort to increase production of motor vehicle fuel from coal listed states with the most coal reserves. Those numbers reflected the reserves at active mining sites, not total reserves.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers, including one presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), is pushing to provide federal loan guarantees, tax breaks and other subsidies to spur the production of fuel from coal.
But the process of turning coal into a liquid emits carbon dioxide, so much that each gallon of the fuel would create more greenhouse gases than gasoline -- unless the carbon dioxide released in production could be captured and stored.
The idea of using the nation's coal reserves, the largest in the world, has drawn new attention as President Bush has pushed for domestically produced alternative fuels, citing national security concerns. Politically jittery lawmakers also are eager to show they are responding to high pump prices.
The idea, however, remains controversial, as a Senate hearing on a coal-fuel measure showed last week. "Here is an opportunity to vote for U.S. coal and against Saudi oil," Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho) said. But Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) responded, "At best, coal-to-liquids will be equal to conventional gasoline. Frankly, we've got to do much, much better."
The debate offers a glimpse of the clashes that lie ahead as lawmakers writing climate-change legislation wrestle with the future of coal.
Coal interests remain a powerful force on Capitol Hill, with significant deposits in about 15 states. And congressional action involving coal could prove vexing for presidential candidates when they are stumping for votes in key producing states, such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, while also trying to win the support of environmentalists.
Strange bedfellows
The issue has created unusual alliances.
"What unites President Bush and Barack Obama?" Frank O'Donnell of Clean Air Watch asked in a recent e-mail update on energy legislation. "Why, support for plans to subsidize conversion of coal to liquid fuel."
- Iowa Power Plant Goes Green With Grass Jan 21, 2001
- Depoliticize Emissions Issue Feb 05, 1999
- Coal ash -- a Tennessee wake-up call Jan 06, 2009
