Coal Execs Spar With Committee Over Climate Change Legislation

Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, greeted officials from Peabody Energy, Arch Coal, Rio Tinto and the Ohio Coal Association by saying at a committee hearing: "I ask you that you cease efforts to deny the science of global warming and stop spending millions of dollars misleading the public on the true science behind climate change," The Guardian reported.

Michael Carey, president of the Ohio Coal Association, was quoted as saying: "The role for coal in the new energy age is greatly hampered by the regulatory assault waged by the Obama administration and the Environmental Protection Agency and in particular the 'war on coal'."

Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., referred to the funds for clean-coal technology in the Waxman-Markey climate change legislation when he responded: "We don't give $60 billion to people we are at war with. We aren't giving $60 billion to al-Qaida."

Peabody Coal President and CEO Gregory Boyce called for an independent review of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other science underlying EPA's endangerment finding that GHGs harm human health, saying: "We think the EPA should take a step back and do more work." Boyce said Peabody would support climate legislation that allowed carbon reduction technologies such as carbon capture and sequestration to mature before imposing emissions caps, The Hill reported.

Power Gen World quoted Boyce as saying: "A strong energy bill that advances CCS is the best way to achieve both our energy and environmental goals. Greater deployment of advanced energy technologies including coal with carbon capture and storage would create tremendous economic stimulus, reindustrializing our economic base and putting people to work." CNN reported that protesters wearing surgical masks made their presence in the chamber known during Boyce's remarks.