Funding Measure Aids Efforts To Develop Clean Coal Technologies

Press Release

Senator Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., today applauded the funding measure passed by the Senate last week which includes funding to aid in the further development of clean coal technologies. The additional funding was part of the FY 2010 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill, which was approved by the Senate 85-9 on July 30.

Byrd, who was instrumental in helping to secure the funding as the senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, also applauded the commitment by the Obama Administration to include funding in their budget request to invest $20 million for capital improvements at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), which is primarily based in Morgantown and Pittsburgh.

The FY 2010 Energy and Water Development Appropriations bill includes approximately $700 million for the Fossil Energy Research and Development program within the Department of Energy, which is $82 million above the President's budget request. Much of this work is also conducted through NETL in Morgantown. The work supports high risk research on ways to utilize coal, natural gas, and oil in an environmentally friendly and cost-effective manner.

"The financial boost for these programs will benefit research and development programs that focus on coal and power systems; carbon sequestration; hydrogen and clean fuels; and more environmentally sound and fiscally responsible ways to produce natural gas and oil," said Byrd. "And with the President's support of capital improvements to operations at NETL, these facilities will continue to lead the way in research and development of clean coal technologies."

Byrd also noted that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that was signed into law by President Obama in February, and which Byrd and the Democratic members of the West Virginia Congressional delegation strongly supported, had an unprecedented and historic funding commitment of $3.4 billion to invest in clean coal technologies

Other specific West Virginia projects funded in the bill by Senator Byrd were:

-- $1.2 million for West Virginia University (WVU) to design and construct a hydrogen fuel dispensing station in Morgantown and conduct associated research in cooperation with the National Energy Technology Laboratory. This station, and the station already under development at the Yeager Airport in Charleston, which will be dedicated later this year, will help to demonstrate new and environmentally friendly ways to use coal-based power for transportation; and

-- $1.25 million for West Virginia University to continue its participation in a research team to assess a variety of issues associated with the construction of a large-scale coal-to-liquids plant in the Shenhua Province of China. Through this effort, the United States will be able to obtain significant operational data on large-scale plants without direct investment in the facilities, and information about the effects of such a plant on the environment.

Byrd met with U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu in his office in February of this year, and shared his strong belief with him that a more global view to tackling the impediments to clean coal is required, with particular emphasis on China, Russia, and India.

The WVU-China coal-to-liquids (CTL) plant research program is an example of the type of work that is needed to continue energy research between the U.S. and China. Seven coal-to-liquid commercial plants are being developed in China, and the U.S. is working with China to show that coal-to-liquids is a technically feasible and economically viable source of alternative fuels.

Since the meeting with Byrd, Secretary Chu has been aggressively advancing the United States' involvement with China in energy research and has made recent visits to China.

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