Chamber Applauds White House Initiative on Climate Change

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Chamber of Commerce applauded today's announcement by the White House of a billion-dollar initiative to use cutting-edge technology to move toward emissions-free energy production and energy independence.

"Finding ways to use coal cleanly and efficiently is a key goal of the business community and the administration," said William Kovacs, Chamber vice president for energy and the environment. "An initiative to promote new technologies that allow us to rely less on foreign sources of energy, while cleaning the air, is a win-win solution for everyone."

The President's Integrated Sequestration and Hydrogen Research (SHR) Initiative is a key milestone that, through demonstration of cutting-edge technology, will help move this nation toward emissions-free energy independence and greatly improve the efficient use of the world's valuable coal resources, according to the Chamber. This technology, when proven, will remove all emissions, including carbon dioxide, an otherwise spent material resource.

The advanced coal gasification plant at the heart of the SHR initiative provides a unique engineering research platform for developing technologies that produce emissions-free electricity and provides an opportunity to test carbon dioxide capture technologies. At the same time, the project will also spur the technological advances needed to fuel a future hydrogen economy.

"Making use of one of the nation's greatest domestic resources — coal — is key to assuring continued economic growth and enhancing national security," said Kovacs. "Developing and using clean coal technology and promoting a hydrogen economy are critical parts to promoting U.S. energy independence.

"As a large-scale engineering laboratory, the SHR initiative will be an immensely useful vehicle for addressing climate change, and represents more than rhetoric, because it promotes technology development."

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business federation representing more than three million businesses and organizations of every size, sector and region.

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