John Shimkus: “last time I spoke on the floor was on H.R. 6, and I challenged my fossil fuel Democrats, my coal Democrats, to not…”

“last time I spoke on the floor was on H.R. 6, and I challenged my fossil fuel Democrats, my coal Democrats, to not abandon fossil fuels. I know that the majority of the Members of the Democratic Caucus are anti-coal, but I was assured the interests of coal would not be left out in the future. Well, here we go again. With this bill we do just that. My motion to recommit would expand the universe of this bill to do what was passed and accepted by a Democratic House in 1992 under EPACT, the Energy and Policy Act. This bill, as written, does not use the 15-year accepted word of 'alternative.' By leaving this out, the bill discriminates not only on coal-to-liquid technologies that produce low sulfur diesel and aviation fuel, but also natural gas and hydrogen. This motion to recommit improves this bill and does not limit science, research and development to not only biofuels but coal-to-liquid, hydrogen and natural gas. It is my hope that one day the Speaker and all of us will be able to fly back to our districts using aviation fuel produced from coal from U.S. coal mines and U.S. refineries.”