The federal government needs to create greater incentives for power companies to move toward “clean coal,” Gov. Bill Ritter and governors from three other coal-producing states said Thursday.
Meeting in Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal’s Cheyenne office, the group privately quizzed finance experts and power officials in an effort to “connect the rhetoric to the reality” on creating clean- burning power plants, said Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah.
“If you think about a major utility building a power plant, what we’re asking is what it takes for their decision to have a different footprint on the future,” said Ritter, who is making alternative energy a cornerstone of his public initiatives.
Joined by Gov. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the bipartisan group intends to draft recommendations to Congress to push the agenda that it says is badly overdue.
Coal-fired power plants, which generate about half of the nation’s electricity, are the primary emitters of carbon dioxide, believed to contribute to global warming.
Technology to capture carbon dioxide is in its infancy and currently would increase the cost of energy production by as much as 80 percent, according to Department of Energy figures.
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
