By Tim Huber
AP Business Writer
CHARLESTON —
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday he’s sure the nation can develop ways to continue burning coal and boost the economy in the process.
Chu sought to reassure an audience of miners, industry executives and students that coal remains vital to the nation’s economy and supported by the Obama administration.
Carbon capture and storage represents a multitrillion dollar market, but Chu warned that the country must make the technology commercially available to avoid harming the environment.
“I think that we can do this,” Chu said. “And we can do it in a timely manner.”
Chu predicted the technology can be proven sufficiently to attract private investment with eight to 10 years. And he said the Energy Department is pushing that process. The agency has $3.4 billion in federal stimulus money to fund projects including a government-funded demonstration project at American Electric Power’s Mountaineer power plant in Mason County.
Chu also announced a $40 million research grant to a group of government labs, businesses and colleges, including West Virginia University on Wednesday.
Burning coal is hurting the environment by releasing carbon dioxide and the latest evidence shows that process is linked to climate change, Chu said. “The increase in carbon that we see has human fingerprints all over it.”
That’s not a popular belief in a state where some openly dispute that greenhouse gases are changing the climate. But Chu and Democratic U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the state’s senior senator, said that’s going to hurt coal in the long term.
“The issue is, how do you use coal in a clean way?” Chu said. “How do we use it in a way that diminishes the risks of climate change?”
