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| Former House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt |
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Gephardt says must learn energy facts
By STEPHANIE HARRIS-SMITH
Published: Monday, July 21, 2008 1:58 PM CDT
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The suggestion that Americans must grasp a few concepts before the fuel and environmental crises facing world today can be controlled was the general idea behind the speech given on coal by former U.S. House majority leader Richard Gephardt on Thursday evening at the Hope Fair Park Coliseum.
The speech was part of the Clean Coal Conference that took place Thursday and Friday at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope. Hope City Mayor Dennis Ramsey and Hempstead County Judge Wallace Martin were also present to sign a proclamation stating Thursday, July 17, to be Clean Coal Technology Day in Hope. Following the signing, State Representative David Bubba Powers, D-Hope, gave the introduction to the former U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader, who began to address the issue of clean coal technology.
The first thing we need to do is deal with the facts. Sometimes when we talk about energy we go off on some wild tangent and someone will say, Well if we just put wind mills everywhere we would not have to worry about any of this.' Well that would be great if it was true, but it just is not true, Gephardt said.
He also seemed to focus some on the idea that people want to oversimplify the answers.
Then somebody says, Well let's get bigger solar panels and that will solve the problem.' Well, it isn't true. Can we make strides in solar? Absolutely and we are doing that, but that is not the answer to the problem. The truth is to meet our energy needs, which are growing by the minute, we've got to have coal and we've got to have nuclear, he said.
Gephardt seemed to touch on the very core of what is affecting Americans today, by pointing out four dollar gasoline prices.
He said some Americans have given up driving, food, and other commodities needed to function in the world today, just to fill up a tank of gas and go to work.
He said the second thing Americans need to do is understand the difference between energy produced from domestic products such as coal, nuclear and oil, or liquefied natural gas that comes from other places.
Let me say again $7 billion a year goes from the United States to the rest of the world, and often to unfriendly countries to pay for the oil that we are using and it is only going to go higher, he said.
He stressed the importance of finding new ways to compete.
We will never solve the global warming issue just in the United States. We are a little bitty country in a great big world. China will open three hundred coal fired plants this year. They open a new coal plant every five days, we are going to build three new coal plants in the U.S. this year. They are going to build 300, he said.
Gephardt emphasized engaging heavy technological research to make use of coal fired plants in a safe manner for the environment.
There is never going to be a day when we do not need oil in this country. The question is: How much and can you replace some of that oil through domestic sources of energy? And, the answer is yes, we can, and we can do it and solve global warming at the same time, he said.
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