Political Quotes

“I concur with my colleagues. Implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act amendments is creating a real need to develop clean alternative fuels. For example, of the 64 remaining U.S. coke batteries, 58 are subject to closure as a result of the Clean Air Act. The steel industry can either use limited capital to build new clean coking facilities or they can choose to import coke from China, which uses 50 year old highly pollutant technologies. Restoring the Section 29 credit to encourage cleaner coker technologies will greatly reduce emissions and will slow our increasing dependence on foreign coke, at the same time creating jobs in the United States in both the steel and coal mining industries. In addition, the United States has rich deposits of lignite and sub-bituminous coals. There are new technologies that can upgrade these coals to make them burn efficiently and economically, while at the same time significantly reducing air pollution. This is proven technology, but to make the development of this technology throughout the nation feasible, the Congress needs to provide tax incentives.”