Washington, D.C. – The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today held a full committee hearing on the opportunities to develop and deploy technologies to convert coal to liquid fuels.

The Energy Information Agency projects that America will get 1.7 million barrels of transportation fuel per day from coal by 2030 using technologies that are still emerging in 2006. That’s nearly half of the expected worldwide coal-to-liquids (CTL) production. A new report prepared by the National Coal Council suggests CTL technologies could product 2.6 million barrels per day, including gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 encourages the development of these technologies in a number of ways, including a new loan guarantee program for innovative technologies that does not require the appropriation of any taxpayer funds. The Department of Energy is nearing completion on the design of the new program.

Chairman Domenici’s statement:

“We have abundant coal reserves. The United States is often called the Saudi Arabia of coal. Emerging coal technologies, along with hydrogen and biofuels technology, could sharply reduce our dependence on foreign oil over the next several years. All of these technologies need to be refined, of course, and coal technology, in particular, needs to be improved in the context of climate change issues.

“But we created a framework in the energy bill for the design and deployment of these critical technologies. As soon as DOE gets the loan guarantee program up and running, I anticipate several applicants from the CTL sector.”