Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act of 2014 - Continued
Floor Speech
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Mr. MANCHIN. I thank the Chair.
I am pleased to join my friend Senator Whitehouse from the great State of Rhode Island to talk about this important subject. In the past, we may not always have agreed on how to approach this problem, but at least we have come together to work on a solution together. That is very important. That is a rare thing in Washington, as the Presiding Officer knows. We are determined to see if we can find common ground to move forward.
As the Senator suggested, the way we produce and consume energy in our States is quite different. I am the Mountain State, he is the Ocean State. Nonetheless, we both agree we need to strike a balance between the economy and the environment. One cannot go it alone. It takes a balance, if you will, in about anything we do in life, one that acknowledges the reality of the climate change, while also understanding that fossil fuels, more specifically coal that we produce so much of in our State, is such a part of our economy, is a vital part of our energy mix for decades to come. That is by the Department of Energy, the EAI's own claim.
There is no doubt that 7 billion people have impacted our world's climate. Those who deny that I believe are wrong. A lot of them are my friends. I believe we have had an impact and we have a responsibility. But we need to know what is going on and the facts we are dealing with in the world today.
There are more than 8 billion tons of coal consumed around the world each year. This gives an outline of where most of that coal is consumed. Currently China burns more than 4 billion tons per year. They are not stopping or letting up. If anything, they are increasing their consumption and building more coal-fired plants as we speak, while the United States and Europe each burn less than 1 billion tons. So the United States of America, you could say, uses less than one-eighth of the coal consumed annually in the world. If we stopped burning every kind of coal, would that really clean up the climate? But if we find ways to do it better, can we help the rest of the world clean up the climate? That is what we are here to talk about.
There is a broad agreement in the scientific community that carbon emissions and other human contributions are causing substantial changes to the Earth's climate. According to the West Virginia State Climatologist's Office, five of the six wettest years have occurred since 1989; four have occurred since 1990.
Just as I do not deny the existence of climate change, my friend Senator Whitehouse does not deny that eliminating coal from the energy mix would hurt the reliability of our grid. He knows that you cannot do it. We have got to work together to keep the reliability in the system, which is so vital to people all over this country.
Without coal, the northeast United States would have suffered severe and enduring power outages during last winter's polar vortex. If our reliability had failed during the polar vortex we came through this past year, there is no question people would have died--no question at all.
Importantly, during that period of time, coal provided 92 percent of the increase in energy needed to survive that disaster.
Coal was able to go online to back up the grid. Ninety-two percent of it was driven by coal because it is dependable, reliable, and affordable.
This chart shows basically the portion of increase in U.S. electricity generation by fuel, January-February 2014, the times we needed it most to keep the grid systems up and running. You can see coal--92 percent--and natural gas fell because of distribution problems we had. It will increase, it will get better as distribution and infrastructure is built.
Oil, nuclear, hydro, renewable--you can see they weren't able to pick up the demand that was needed or the load that was needed to keep the system moving.
Nick Akins is the CEO of American Electric Power. He said this about the polar vortex: ``This country did not just dodge a bullet--it dodged a cannon ball''
We need to address climate change, but we need to do it while maintaining the reliability of our electricity system. Senator Whitehouse and I both realize that coal will remain a vital part of our Nation's general portfolio for the foreseeable future.
According to the President's own Energy Information Administration--the EIA--coal generated about 40 percent of all U.S. electricity in 2011. In 2040 coal will still generate more than 30 percent of the domestic electricity that is needed.
This chart basically shows where we are going in the foreseeable future. This is 2040. By 2040 natural gas will be at 35 percent, and coal will still be at 32 percent--both, it can be said, out of fossil, so you have 67 percent. Renewals increase to 16 percent. Nuclear is going down to 16 percent, and I believe we have to reengage our efforts there. I really do. So coal will assume the dominant world markets for the foreseeable future.
According to EIA, coal provided 69 percent of China's energy consumption in 2011. This chart gives a little bit of an idea of where we are. China used four times the amount of coal used in the United States that year. Coal supplied 41 percent of India's total energy consumption. During that period of time, India used roughly the same amount of coal as we did in the United States. By 2040 China will produce 62 percent of its electricity from coal, while India will produce 56 percent. During the next few years, some 1,200 new coal plants are going to be built across 59 countries; 363 are going to be built in China and 455 in India alone.
It is unbelievable when you look at more than 8 billion tons of coal that are consumed around the world each year. China currently burns more than 4 billion tons per year, while the United States and Europe burn less than 1 billion tons. Use in these countries and in other parts of the world is projected to grow dramatically for decades to come.
The United States has already been a leader in proving to the world that we can produce coal cleaner today. Traditional pollutants--sulfur, mercury, nitrogen, and particulates--have been cut 80 percent in the last several years. What is less known is that technologies are being developed--and some already exist--that dramatically lower coal plant carbon emissions.
With smarter investments from the public and private sectors, we will not only finish the first generation of carbon capture, storage, and utilization plants but also develop the second generation of these technologies. When that happens in the not so distant future, we will lead the world toward utilization of fossil fuels in a way that produces negligible or zero harmful emissions.
With the right policies and the right coordination between the public and private sectors, we can lead by example and show the world that we can burn fossil fuels cleaner than ever. Most importantly, we can do all of this while protecting consumers, creating jobs, and growing our economy.
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Mr. MANCHIN. When I was Governor of West Virginia, we set and have now achieved an alternative where we are going to reduce our carbon footprint by 25 percent by using coal in a cleaner fashion and also some of the other things we do, which I will explain. Not only did we do it, we did it 10 years earlier than we had targeted. In 2013, 4.1 percent of West Virginia's energy already came from hydroelectric and wind energy. Mount Storm Wind Farm--so many people don't know what we have done in our little State because we are all in; we want to do it all, and we are trying everything we have--is the second largest wind farm east of the Mississippi, 17 miles across the beautiful landscape.
I also agree with Senator Whitehouse on the importance of energy efficiency. With our friend Senator Hoeven of North Dakota, I have introduced the All-Of-The-Above Federal Building Energy Conservation Act, legislation that would improve the energy efficiency of all Federal buildings and set an example for the private sector.
This legislation takes a commonsense, all-of-the-above approach to the issue of Federal energy efficiency. I believe that by encouraging the use of innovative technologies and practices, instituting reasonable goals, and allowing building managers flexibility, we can achieve better environmental stewardship in a cost-effective manner.
As Governors, Senator Hoeven--a Republican from North Dakota--and I relied on common sense to guide our State policies, and this bill applies that much needed common sense to Federal policies. We should be using all of our abundant resources, including coal, to power our Nation in the most efficient way possible. Our bill accomplishes this goal and proves the Federal Government can lead the way in using fossil fuels to achieve greater energy efficiency in a much cleaner fashion.
While efficiency and renewables are important, let me say again that it is most important to reduce emissions from coal plants while keeping them running well into the future. Advances in coal-use technologies will continue to develop with help from the public sector.
Enhanced oil recovery is already developing into a valuable tool for augmenting domestic oil production. We need Federal investments for technology such as EOR.
Research is ongoing for the use of coal and CO2 for a multitude of new energy and consumer products, including fertilizers, liquid fuels, and plastic materials.
I just had a gentleman come to my office who basically makes carbon out of coal which cleanses the water we drink.
So there are so many things. Senator Whitehouse is right. There are so many things that we are using, and we can do a lot more.
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Mr. MANCHIN. The Senator and I disagree on a few things, but I adamantly disagree with my dear friend Senator Whitehouse regarding the wisdom of a carbon fee or so-called carbon tax. But I do agree that we can use the Tax Code and other Federal tax incentives to help clean up fossil fuels. That is why we are here together to find a pathway.
First, the DOE must approve $8 billion in loan guarantees for advanced fossil fuel projects that they have had available since 2005. None of it has been invested to try to help use the fuel that we depend on--coal--in a much better, cleaner fashion. Also, I found out that we also have $3.2 billion from the stimulus money to be used for shovel-ready coal projects that is still sitting and hasn't been invested. So there is a lot we can do without appropriating any new money, just using the money that is there for the purpose it was intended.
New tax incentives could be employed to incentivize providers to update sub-critical plants to the super- and ultra-super-critical configurations that pave the way for CCS.
Finally, we need to incentivize the second generation of CCS technology, the one that holds the future for promise of coal use with negligible emissions.
What are we talking about? Carbon capture sequestration, just being used for that purpose, if you don't have a secondary source to where you can put it and sell it for enhanced oil recovery, as we call it--the technology that we could use in the shale that maybe can enhance the gas from the shale, the Utica and Marcellus that we have in West Virginia--so much could have been done that we haven't done. Maybe we could solidify the carbon and use it as a spent fuel. These are things we need to get to, and this money lying right now in the Department of Energy for almost 10 years needs to be invested.
With the help of Senator Whitehouse, I can only think that we can move forward and find a solution.
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Mr. MANCHIN. Mr. President, I thank the Senator. Again, I say to my good friend Senator Whitehouse from Rhode Island, I look forward to coming to his beautiful State of Rhode Island and seeing all of what they are doing and the efficiencies they have and technology they are incorporating. I also look forward to showing him my State, the beautiful State of West Virginia, and its great people.
We have both visited each other's States before, so we know how good our States are. It is going to be great to revisit.
I thank the Senator also for joining me on the floor as we continue to have this extremely important dialogue. If Senator Whitehouse and I can start looking for a pathway, I am sure friends from both sides of the aisle can join us. That is what we are trying to have happen.
I agree with Senator Whitehouse, the United States of America has long stood before the world as an exceptional country that people look up to. We have reigned as the dominant world power and have played the role of the world's leader for more than 200 years.
Coal use is expanding across the globe, and we need to face that reality--and we must take our position as the world leader and broker solutions, knowing the rest of the world is going to use this product more than ever before. So finding a balance of the environment between our concerns and our economic prosperity is going to happen. We should be that leader also.
The solution for the United States is to develop a technology that will allow us to use the fuels we need cleanly and to export that technology to the world.
Yes, West Virginia and Rhode Island are indeed different in many ways, but most importantly the Senator and I both know they are both part of this great country, and that is what makes America great. We can deliberate and challenge each other's positions on any one issue--and we sure have had our share of dogged debates on the issues of climate change and energy issues--but when it comes to deciding what is best for our future generations and our beautiful Earth, there is always room for reasonable compromise and a way forward.
So as we continue to work diligently in the Senate, I also look forward to visiting again with him, and we will make that happen sooner than later.
Once again, I thank Senator Whitehouse for coming to the table to establish a truly commonsense, all-of-the-above energy policy that acknowledges the vital role coal must play moving forward.
This energy strategy will also help protect good-paying jobs, boost our economy nationwide and around the world, and improve the quality of life of all living things.
We are going to fix this together, not as Democrats or Republicans but as Americans, as the world leaders we always have been. We have been looking to find the balance, and we will find the balance and show not only America but the world that we can look past our differences to better this world. I look forward so much to that. We both have looked at it from this standpoint: We both agree we need to work together and basically agree we have a responsibility in this world and this country to be a leader again in finding a pathway to using the energy the good Lord gave us and find the best balance we can with the economy and environment, cleaning up the environment for which we are responsible.
I thank my good friend, and I yield the floor.
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