Saturday October 28, 2006

US energy secretary announces $450 mil for coal research

ASHLAND, Kentucky (AP): US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman announced $450 million (euro355 million) in grants during the next decade to further research into technology that would lessen the environmental impacts of coal use.

Thirty percent of the grant money, or $134 million (euro106 million), will be awarded to groups supporting the research in Kentucky, said Bodman at an energy roundtable Friday hosted by Republican Congressman Geoff Davis.

The Department of Energy projects that a process called coal sequestration could play a major role in meeting the Bush administration's goal of reducing the intensity of greenhouse emissions by 18 percent by 2012.

The process involves capturing emissions, separating the carbon dioxide and sequestering it for commercial use or for injection back into the earth to flush out oil.

"Sequestration technology holds the key to the continued environmentally responsible use of coal,'' Bodman said.

The roundtable, featuring experts from the Southern States Energy Board, the University of Kentucky and the Kentucky Office of Energy Policy, was held in Ashland, a major coal processing city in Davis' district.

Kentucky ranked third in the U.S. in coal production in 2005, behind Wyoming and West Virginia.

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