From ValleyWatch.net

BREAKING NEWS-Gore calls for coal plant moratorium

March 21, 2007 - By John Blair. Testifying before the Energy and Air pollution sub-sommittee Al Gore called for a moratorium on new coal plants, "not compatible with carbon capture and sequestration." Photo © 2007 John Blair
Al Gore, today called for a moratorium to be placed on new coal plants until they are compatible with a technology that is likely to be unavailable in the foreseeable future.

Gore also called for altering the tax code to "discourage pollution and encourage work" using a revenue neutral tax on carbon emissions that would apply across the board.

Gore's proposals come on the heals of the appearance by six coal utility executives who spoke yesterday, asking that a cap and trade program be used to make life easier for them in a "carbon constrained world."

Among those representing the utilities before the House committee was James Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy which is proposing building two new coal plants in Indiana and in North Carolina.

Rogers, who has gained wide attention by his acknowledgment of the climate crisis sang a different tune before the committee, asking them to save the "deepest reductions in carbon until later" when he hopes that carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) will be proven to work. Rogers gave no time limit to his requests but another of the executives called for a 50-100 year time frame

The future of the coal industry is at stake without CCS since coal is the primary fuel that emits huge quantities of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas causing the climate crisis.

Last month, NASA Goddard Space Institute's James Hansen, made the same call for a moratorium on new coal plants and said old ones that do not use CCS, need to be "bulldozed" by the middle of this century if we are going to solve the climate crisis.

Gore is scheduled to speak before a similar Senate committee later today.

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John Blair

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