Interview

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OBAMA: One of the things that we"re going to be talking about today is investing in the kind of technology that will allow us to use coal, our most bountiful natural resource, here in the United States, without polluting our planet. If we can develop the technology to capture the carbon pollution released by coal, we can create jobs and provide energy well into the future.

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SCHULTZ: For more on this, I want to bring in someone who is an expert on clean coal technology, the governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer. He is the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association and was in the meeting with the president this afternoon. Brian, it"s great to see you again. I appreciate your time this afternoon. I"m going to play devil"s advocate here for just a moment. There"s no such thing as clean coal technology. Your response?

GOV. BRIAN SCHWEITZER (D), MONTANA: Ed, you wouldn"t say that if you were from North Dakota, would you? You know that there"s been a coal-gasification plant built in Beulah, North Dakota since 1984. For a dozen years, they have been capturing the carbon monoxide and piping it into an oil field in Sasquatchuan, where that CO2 is stored geologically in that oil zone, and is producing more oil.

We can capture CO2 and we can store it geologically. The people who say it doesn"t exist, well, they"re just not paying attention.

SCHULTZ: Well, the technology has come a long way in the last ten years. The scrubber technology has been absolutely phenomenal. Is this a heavy lift for the Obama administration with his base? What do you think?

SCHWEITZER: I don"t think so. The base understands that we need to decrease CO2 emissions, that Greenhouse gasses are creating climate change. So that means we need more wind, more solar, electric cars. It means that we have to remove the Carbon Dioxide from coal that we are using. Fifty percent of the electricity in America comes from coal. We"re rapidly moving towards electric cars. We"re going to actually increase our electricity demands by double, then triple in this country during the next 40 years. We"re going to need all sources, nukes, gas, oil, clean coal, wind, solar.

We need it all. We need battery technology and we need it now. American engineers designing American energy, in American, built by American workers, beat that.

SCHULTZ: This is what the president had to say at your meeting today on the bipartisan effort. Here it is.

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OBAMA: I"m convinced that America can win the race to build a clean energy economy. But we"re going to have to overcome the weight of our own politics. We have to focus not so much on the narrow areas where we disagree, but on the broad areas where we agree. And I also think it"s important for us to understand that in order for us to move forward with a robust energy policy, we"ve got to have not an either/or philosophy but a both/and philosophy.

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SCHULTZ: Governor Schweitzer, we have enough coal in Montana and North Dakota to power the lights in this country, coast to coast, for the next 1,000 years. There"s been a lot of studies done about how this resource could really help America get energy independent. For some reason, we have lacked the infrastructure and the real federal investment to get it done. Are we at that juncture now, where maybe we might see a real commitment to get that done?

SCHWEITZER: Ed, we don"t lack energy in this country. We lack resolve. We lack the resolve to break that addiction to foreign oil. Yes, we can clean up our coal, remove the carbon dioxide, and that"s just one step. Montana alone has enough wind power to power every car in America, if they were electric cars. Add North Dakota and Wyoming, we can probably do most of the world.

You see, we have the energy. We just haven"t had the leadership and the resolve. I"m heartened that this administration is finally seeing the necessity of breaking our addiction to foreign oil, and creating a new American energy system that"s cleaner and greener.

SCHULTZ: Governor, great to have you with us. Good to see you again.

Appreciate your time.

SCHWEITZER: Good to be back, neighbor.

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