Joe Manchin: “The Senator and I disagree on a few things, but I adamantly disagree with my dear friend Senator Whitehouse regarding…”

“The Senator and I disagree on a few things, but I adamantly disagree with my dear friend Senator Whitehouse regarding the wisdom of a carbon fee or so-called carbon tax. But I do agree that we can use the Tax Code and other Federal tax incentives to help clean up fossil fuels. That is why we are here together to find a pathway. First, the DOE must approve $8 billion in loan guarantees for advanced fossil fuel projects that they have had available since 2005. None of it has been invested to try to help use the fuel that we depend on--coal--in a much better, cleaner fashion. Also, I found out that we also have $3.2 billion from the stimulus money to be used for shovel- ready coal projects that is still sitting and hasn't been invested. So there is a lot we can do without appropriating any new money, just using the money that is there for the purpose it was intended. New tax incentives could be employed to incentivize providers to update sub-critical plants to the super- and ultra-super-critical configurations that pave the way for CCS. Finally, we need to incentivize the second generation of CCS technology, the one that holds the future for promise of coal use with negligible emissions. What are we talking about?…”