Speech

These are just some of the issues I am working on with my fellow Republicans in Congress to promote energy security. Energy development and production delivers jobs, economic growth, and a secure energy future for our nation.

I want to congratulate the coal industry on the dedication of the Dry Fork Station on Thursday, August 11, 2011 – a fantastic state of the art, coal–fired electrical power generation plant owned by Basin Electric Power Cooperative and the Wyoming Municipal Power Agency. Many proposed coal-fired power plants have been put on hold pending the outcome of possible climate change legislation and new regulations being promulgated by EPA. The owners of this facility bit the bullet and built a plant designed to cope with possible new regulations.

Coal is a critically important component of the Nation’s energy mix and will be so long into the future – while alternative and renewable energy sources will play at best a supporting role. The base-load power for the Nation comes now and must for the foreseeable future come from COAL, as well as natural gas, and nuclear power plants. Your industry has a great story to tell and I encourage you to tell it.

The United States is a nation rich in energy resources. There’s absolutely no question that developing these resources will help this country become more stable economically.

As to the future, despite the naysayers who oppose the use of coal, even to the detriment of our nation, and the dreamers, who do not understand that energy does not come from simply wishing it to be, coal has a vital role to play in our nation’s future.

We have a two to three hundred year supply of coal. It would be the height of foolishness to simply throw it away. I, for one, do not think it wise to abandon an energy source that has served us so well and that is so established in our way of life in exchange for speculative climate gains decades or even centuries in the future. Through technology, we have continually made coal more efficient and clean, and I have every confidence that we will continue to do so going forward.

I stand with you to help bring an even brighter future and a more prosperous economy to America. I want to thank you for the opportunity to be here today.