[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 50 (Thursday, March 27, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4518-S4520]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BYRD (for himself, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Burns, 
        Mr. Dorgan, Mr. Allard, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Voinovich, Mr. Bayh, 
        Mr. Enzi, Mr. Campbell, and Mr. Conrad):
  S. 727. A bill to reauthorize a Department of Energy program to 
develop and implement accelerated research, development, and 
demonstration projects for advanced clean coal technologies for use in 
coal-based electricity generating facilities, to amend the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for the use of those 
technologies, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, time after time, coal has been there for 
this country. Coal has been and will continue to be an important part 
of America--its history, its economy, and its people.
  During World War I, when coal supplied the Nation's heat and powered 
our battleships and industries, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed 
that the Nation's war effort ``rested on the shoulders of [the American 
coal] miner.''
  During World War II, when enemy conquests in Asia and Africa 
threatened to stop the worldwide flow of oil, the American government 
responded by initiating a federally sponsored synthetic fuels program 
based on coal. Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes acknowledged, 
``We should not have waited until war was upon us to begin the 
development of synthetic fuels.''
  After the war, that program was dismantled. Far-sighted men warned of 
the dangers of this decision. John L. Lewis, President of the United 
Mine Workers, predicted a growing reliance upon foreign oil in the 
post-war era would one day result in outrageous prices at the gas pump 
and cars lined up for blocks to purchase gasoline.
  Those of us old enough to remember the oil embargoes and energy 
crises of the 1970s know how accurate that prediction was. Those oil 
embargoes and energy crises prompted the Carter Administration to 
establish a national synthetic fuels program largely based on coal as 
the United States was labeled ``the Saudi Arabia of coal.''
  However, the Reagan Administration all but eliminated the Department 
of Energy's fossil fuels and renewable energy programs, and withdrew 
support for the development of alternative energy technologies.
  How short-sighted that was. I correct myself. It wasn't just short-
sighted, it was blind, and I said so at the time. In a speech on this 
Senate floor, I warned that the Reagan administration's cutbacks in our 
energy programs were ``leaving us dangerously vulnerable to foreign 
transgressions.'' Historians like to point out that those who do not 
remember the past are condemned to relive it. Why must we continue to 
relive yesterday's mistakes? Can we not learn from the past?
  Once again, concerns about our Nation's current and future energy 
needs are on the minds of citizens across the country. Worrisome gas 
prices, erratic fuel costs, electricity supply needs, energy efficiency 
improvements, and U.S. dependence on foreign oil are major challenges 
that we must tackle. To develop a bipartisan, national energy plan, 
Congress must establish balanced energy policies that recognize the 
need for both economic growth, energy security, and environmental 
protection.

[[Page S4519]]

Coal will play a key role in that strategy.
  It is paramount that we develop a comprehensive plan built on a 
balanced portfolio of resources, technologies, and ideas. Such a plan 
must look broadly across all sectors of the economy and set objectives 
to meet these needs both today and down the road. And, as we look at 
the needs of our economy and our future, we need to better understand 
where to put critical and precious research and development resources 
and how to best stimulate these technologies in the marketplace.
  Undoubtedly, fossil fuels will continue to be a primary source for 
meeting our energy needs into the coming decades. Coal, used in cleaner 
and more efficient ways, will be a key component of that energy 
strategy. Coal is this country's most abundant natural resource, 
providing over half of the Nation's electricity and accounting for one 
third of our Nation's total energy production.
  Today, a bipartisan group of Members join me in introducing the 
National Coal Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 2003. I 
very much appreciate the support of Senators Rockefeller, Thomas, 
Burns, Dorgan, Allard, Durbin, Voinovich, Bayh, Enzi, Campbell, and 
Conrad. We believe that this legislation will help to maintain our 
Nation's fuel diversity by ensuring a key role for coal in our Nation's 
energy future.
  This initiative provides a roadmap to the future by authorizing $2 
billion over that next ten years for a clean coal technology 
demonstration program to help speed these technologies from the 
laboratory to the marketplace. Our legislation aims to improve air 
quality as well as the efficiency of the current fleet of coal-fired 
power plants by providing targeted tax incentives for the installation 
of these technologies at existing coal-fired facilities.
  Additionally, this legislation will help meet the need for new 
infrastructure by providing incentives to deploy a targeted number of 
advanced clean coal technologies to prove their viability in the 
marketplace now and in the future. Finally, it ensures that all 
generators of coal can compete for these targeted tax incentives on an 
equal basis. This initiative is an important component of a strategy to 
achieve energy diversity and independence.
  I have been around Congress for a very long time--more than 50 years. 
Recently, I became the third longest serving Member of Congress. My 
association with coal started early in my life and has continued 
throughout my many years of service in Congress. Coal has always been 
with me, it has been there fore us. Coal is abundant. Coal is 
affordable. Coal is ours!
  Clean coal research and development funding and tax incentive 
legislation gained significant bipartisan and bicameral support during 
the energy bill debates in the 107th Congress. This success was built 
on the framework outlined, developed, and refined with my support in 
past Congress.
  There is a little verse that goes:

     God and soldier all men adore,
     in time of trouble and no more,
     for when war is over, and all things righted,
     God is neglected and the old soldier slighted.

  In times of national struggle and adversity, in times of war, coal 
has been there. But in times of calm, when the urgency subsides, so 
does our national determination to establish and implement a 
comprehensive energy strategy. To fail to incorporate a comprehensive 
energy plan into our vision for the Nation's future would ultimately be 
to America's detriment.
  The development of clean coal technologies is essential to the 
betterment of our Nation's economic, energy, environmental, and 
security future. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I am proud today to join with my 
colleague from West Virginia, Senator Byrd, and Senators Thomas, Burns, 
Durbin, Allard, Dorgan, Bayh, Voinovich, Enzi, Campbell, and Conrad, to 
introduce the National Coal Research, Development and Demonstration Act 
of 2003. This is a bill I will work very hard to see enacted, because I 
believe both that the Nation's economy will grind to a halt without 
coal, and because sustaining the indispensable role of the Nation's 
most abundant energy source can only be accomplished by finding 
environmentally sensitive ways of using it.
  This legislation is the byproduct of more than 5 years of effort to 
foster new scientific research and commercial application of clean coal 
technologies. This has been a collaborative effort between members of 
Congress from both sides of the aisle and both sides of the Hill 
working together with the coal and utility industries, the Department 
of Energy, the United Mine Workers, and academic and industrial 
scientists. The legislation we introduce today is substantially similar 
to legislation introduced in the 107th Congress, which formed the basis 
of the coal tax and coal R&D provisions of the comprehensive energy 
bill the Senate passed last year.
  I have a particular interest in the clean coal tax provisions. I 
aggressively argued for them in the Finance Committee, and I was 
gratified by the willingness of then-Chairman Baucus and Ranking Member 
Grassley to work with me to include meaningful coal tax incentives in 
the bill this body passed by an overwhelming majority and sent to 
conference with the House. As a tax conferee, I again pushed hard for 
inclusion of the Senate-passed provisions, over the more expensive and 
less-inclusive House provisions. Unfortunately, the energy conference 
and the comprehensive energy legislation it was so close to producing 
were allowed to die by some who thought this Congress would be a better 
setting for consideration of a national energy policy.
  The R&D provisions, and in fact the entire package we introduce here 
today, have had no more fervent champion than my colleague, the senior 
Senator from West Virginia, Senator Byrd. Indeed, Senator Byrd has been 
a stalwart friend of coal far longer than the more than 5-year duration 
of this effort on clean coal technologies. I would be remiss if I did 
not commend Senator Byrd for his dedication and diligence in advocating 
for clean coal. I cannot overstate the importance of coal to our state 
of West Virginia. I am proud to join Senator Byrd in this effort to 
improve the environmental performance of coal, and to affirm its 
critical role in the economy of our State, and of the entire Nation.
  When enacted, this legislation will foster crucial, collaborative, 
and cutting edge scientific research by the Department of Energy and 
its industry partners into technologies allowing increasingly cleaner 
and more efficient use of our Nation's most abundant fossil fuel, coal, 
as a fuel to produce electricity. At the same time, this bill will 
create tax incentives to help coal-fired utilities defray the high cost 
of installation of clean coal technologies on coal-fired power plants. 
We have included incentives for clean coal technologies on both 
existing power plants and those yet to be built. Clean coal 
technologies used to repower existing plants will allow them to meet 
our most stringent Clean Air Act standards for stationary source 
emissions. Installations of these technologies on existing facilities 
is important not only to protect the environment. Perhaps as 
significant for our economy, sustaining energy production from these 
reliable sources of electricity helps insulate consumers from the kind 
of extraordinary price shocks we have seen recently in the natural gas 
and petroleum markets.
  New facilities designed and built with next generation, advanced 
clean coal technologies will be cleaner and more reliable still. Energy 
experts estimate that to meet our Nation's burgeoning demand for 
electricity, we may see more than a thousand new electricity generating 
plants built in the next 20 years. Modest incentives for installation 
of advanced clean coal technologies will give utilities the ability to 
choose cheap and abundant coal as a fuel source, and still produce air 
emissions as clean or cleaner than those produced by natural gas 
plants.
  The two sections of this bill concentrate on different aspects of the 
coal picture, and will be considered by different committees in the 
Senate. Yet the programs and commercial development this bill will 
engender will work hand in hand. The advanced clean coal research and 
development funded by this bill, augmented by the data industry, 
academic, and government scientists hope to gain from the performance 
of the reconfigured existing

[[Page S4520]]

plants, will hasten the deployment of a fleet of near-zero emission 
coal-fired plans in the coming decade or two.
  I represent a State that produces a lot of coal, and uses a lot of 
coal. Between 98 and 99 percent of the electricity in West Virginia is 
generated with coal. This is higher than any other State in the Nation, 
but West Virginia electricity consumers are by no means alone in their 
dependence on coal. The United States is dependent on coal to a degree 
that I am sure comes as a surprise to most people. Coal produces more 
than half of the electricity used in this country. It is the primary 
source of electricity in 32 States, accounting for at least 55 percent 
of the electricity in 25 of these. Of the remaining 18 States, coal is 
the second most prevalent source of electricity in six of them, and a 
close third in two more. So, I thank my fellow cosponsors for their 
work on this bill, but I say to my colleagues, this is not just 
important to those of us whose States produce coal. Coal will continue 
to be a vital economic resource for the entire country. Because of 
this, and because the future health of our environment depends on good 
decisions made today, I recommend this legislation to all of my 
colleagues, and ask for their support in passing it.
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