Looking a bit closer at the energy bill, SB262, that Brian Moran voted for, you find a few other interesting tidbits besides his vote for offshore natural gas exploration.First, there is an entire section ("Chapter 4") covering "Clean Coal Projects." For the purposes of this bill, "clean coal" is defined as follows: "any project that uses any technology, including technologies applied at the precombustion, combustion, or postcombustion stage, at a new or existing facility that will achieve significant reductions in air emissions of sulfur dioxide or oxides of nitrogen associated with the utilization of coal in the generation of electricity, process steam, or industrial products, which is not in widespread use...."
That's right, Brian Moran not only voted for "clean coal," he voted for a definition of "clean coal" that explicitly did NOT mention the main greenhouse gas pollutant arising from coal combustion, namely carbon dioxide, let alone CAPTURING or SEQUESTRING said carbon dioxide. Wonderful.
Then, having voted for this extremely limited definition of "clean coal," one that would do NOTHING to deal with the problem of climate change, Moran ALSO voted for the following instructions with regard to permitting of "clean coal" facilities.
"To the extent authorized by federal law, the State Air Pollution Control Board shall implement permit processes that facilitate the construction of clean coal projects in the Commonwealth by, among such other actions as it deems appropriate, giving priority to processing permit applications for clean coal projects."
Oh, great, now let's facilitate the development of "clean coal" without carbon capture and sequestration capability. Niiiiice.
But wait, there's more! That's right, having voted for an extremely lax version of the oxymoron known as "clean coal," Brian Moran further voted to FUND this garbage by setting up "a special nonreverting fund to be known as the Clean Coal Technology Research Fund."
Wondeful, just what we need, a "special fund" for non-C02-capturing/sequestrating "clean coal." Just wonderful.
By the way, what's so ironic about all this is the fact that CANDIDATE Moran would be absolutely blasting DELEGATE Moran for this vote, if it weren't for the fact that DELEGATE Moran and CANDIDATE Moran are the same person. Funny how life works like that.
P.S. This bill also called for "Facilitat[ing] the development of new, and the expansion of existing, petroleum refining facilities within the Commonwealth." Oh, great, just what we need, both "clean coal" without carbon capture/sequestration AND dirty new oil refineries in Virginia. Yeah, that Brian Moran is some environmentalist!
