Political Quotes

“I would say to my colleague, he is exactly right. He hit the nail on the head. We are talking about clean coal technology and encouraging development in clean coal technology. But to do it, we have to have regulations that are attainable and feasible that encourage the kind of investment we are talking about. The project the Senator is referring to is the Dakota Gasification Company, which has been operating now in our State successfully for years. It actually takes coal and converts it to synthetic natural gas--natural gas. That natural gas then goes into a pipeline, goes for all different uses, and meets the CO<INF>2</INF> requirements the administration is talking about attaining right now because it is natural gas. So it meets that natural gas standard. The coal, we burn. Then we capture the CO<INF>2</INF>, we compress it, put it in a pipeline, and it goes into the oilfields for a tertiary or secondary recovery. So we are also producing more oil for mature oilfields. That is an example of the technology and the capital investment and kind of regulatory environment that encourages technology development to not only produce more energy, more jobs, and growing the economy, but as my colleague is pointing out, better environmental stewardship. That is how to get it done, not just in this country but globally. So the Senator is exactly right.”