Enzi critical of energy bill

By: MEAD GRUVER - Associated Press | Friday, September 14, 2007 7:24 PM PDT ∞

CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Sen. Mike Enzi on Thursday criticized energy legislation pending before Congress, saying the federal government needs to provide more incentives for utility companies to produce cleaner power from coal.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Enzi, a Republican, called the legislation the "anti-energy bill" and said he was not optimistic that President Bush would receive a bill that included cleaner coal incentives.

"If you don't provide incentives and you reduce the supply of energy, prices are going to go up. That's what this bill does," Enzi said during an hourlong interview at the Capitol.

The legislation currently sits in conference committee, where House and Senate negotiators will try to resolve key differences. The Senate version calls for greater fuel efficiency in automobiles; the House bill would place new taxes on the oil industry and mandate more energy from renewable sources.

Enzi, who does not sit on the conference committee, also criticized recent comments by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

"I'm really disappointed in our majority leader saying that he doesn't think any more coal-fired power plants ought to be built anywhere in the United States, or the world," Enzi said. "I don't know what he thinks they're going to power the slot machines in Las Vegas on."

A spokesman for Reid said Enzi inaccurately portrayed Reid's perspective on coal. Jon Summers said it was Reid's "philosophical position" that no more coal-fired plants should be built.

"But he's not reaching into every state and taking action," Summers said. "He's only taking action in Nevada. He's not going into Wyoming or any other state to step in and prevent the construction of coal plants."

Summers said Reid believes there may be cleaner coal, but no such thing as clean coal.

"There is technology to construct plants that are cleaner than some of the ones that area already in existence," he said. "But cleaner isn't necessarily clean."

Enzi said the late Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., had plans for a pilot coal-fired plant that would capture carbon dioxide, one of the gases blamed for global warming, written into law but it remains unfunded. He added loan guarantees for coal-to-diesel programs also remain unfunded.

Despite his emphasis on coal, Enzi also supports renewable energy.

"We need to look at any kind of energy we possibly can," he said.

He noted that all 50 states use electricity from coal-fired power plants.

"If we were to eliminate that, they wouldn't just have brownouts in California, they'd have blackouts in California," he said.

Enzi's comments came a day after four governors -- Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin -- met in Cheyenne to talk about how to get Congress to enact more incentives for cleaner coal technology.

The governors said they would present specific recommendations later.

On Friday, Enzi said he remained hopeful about technology in this area.

"I really believe in research. I really think that if there's any problems out there, American ingenuity can solve it. There are a lot of people that say, `No, there are all theses things that just cause problems, let's not do anything with them.'

"We can improve on all of them. We can have the kind of energy we need. We can even have energy independence."