New Multi-Industry Coalition Aligns to Advocate Energy Security and Environmental Stewardship

Business Wire,  April 17, 2008  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- More than 40 leading U.S. companies from the electricity generation, transportation, coal production, energy technology, and equipment manufacturing industries have aligned to create the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). The group will support public policies that advance environmental improvement, economic prosperity, and energy security.

ACCCE believes that the use of coal, America's most abundant energy resource, is essential to providing affordable, reliable electricity for millions of American consumers and a growing domestic economy. ACCCE also supports enhanced public and private sector efforts to develop and deploy new, advanced clean coal technologies that protect and improve the environment.

The formation of ACCCE results from a consolidation of the Center for Energy and Economic Development (CEED) and Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC).

CEED, founded in 1992, has been engaged in a wide range of energy and environmental policies related to coal-based electricity issues at the regional, state, and local levels. The mission of ABEC (formed in 2000) has been to educate the American public with respect to the benefits of coal's use for meeting domestic electricity demand, including the America's Power campaign (www.americaspower.org), which ACCCE will sponsor going forward.

Additionally, ACCCE will take on an expanded mission by joining other national associations and member companies to lobby federal policymakers on policies designed to slow, stop, and ultimately reverse the growth of manmade greenhouse gas emissions.

At the heart of ACCCE's advocacy are important facts that policymakers, media, and individuals must recognize if America is to meet its economic and energy policies and its environmental goals:

* Coal fuels over half of America's electricity; the U.S. has more coal reserves than any other nation; and coal's domestic abundance and low-cost (less than 1/3 the cost of other fuels) provide enormous advantages in enhancing American energy security.

* The U.S. has made tremendous environmental improvements in the way coal is used to generate electricity. The use of coal for electricity generation has more than tripled since 1970, while criteria emissions controlled under the federal Clean Air Act have been reduced by nearly 50 percent. The industry is committed to reducing emissions even further - including the eventual widespread capture and storage of manmade greenhouse gas emissions.

* Clean coal technologies are essential in addressing climate concerns. Technologies to improve power plant efficiencies and to capture and safely store carbon dioxide emissions present an effective means by which the nation can achieve significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector. With proper investments in technology, these emissions reductions can be achieved without causing serious economic dislocations or making the U.S. more reliant on imported forms of energy.

ACCCE President and CEO Stephen L. Miller noted that prudent public policies must acknowledge the need to meet growing U.S. electricity demand and to re-ignite the slumping domestic economy, while focusing on continued environmental improvement.

"Protecting the environment is a shared responsibility for individuals, businesses and government alike. At the same time, many Americans are also deeply concerned about the growing reliance on imported energy and increasing energy costs," said Miller. "Coal is an abundant energy resource found right here at home, and it is also affordable. Shielding American consumers - especially working families and people living on fixed incomes - from unnecessary energy price increases must be a national priority," said Miller.

Miller emphatically answered questions about whether coal can remain a viable fuel option for the future in a carbon-constrained world. "Coal will remain a fuel of the future because there has never been an environmental challenge facing the coal-based electricity sector for which technology did not provide the ultimate solution," said Miller.

Today's announcement goes well beyond detailing the organizational changes involved in the formation of ACCCE and bolsters the industry's commitment to support common sense federal policies that address concerns about climate change. Miller emphasized that, in its outreach to policymakers and the American people, ACCCE will also endorse an integrated U.S. climate strategy that:

* Promotes rapid and widespread research, development, deployment, and commercialization of innovative, advanced clean coal and other technologies including carbon capture, transportation, safe storage, and terrestrial carbon sequestration that are vital to the success of prudent climate change policies.

* Recognizes any policy addressing climate change is inextricably linked to broader U.S. energy security, economic development, and environmental interests and goals.