NO PUBLIC FUNDING FOR CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE (CCS) TECHNOLOGY

December 5, 2008

The following statement was issued today by Pam Solo, one of the co-conveners of TheCLEAN.org, a collaborative movement of state and local organizations and individuals working to support policy makers at all levels of government to implement new energy policies:

"We at TheCLEAN.org, while appreciative of the efforts of some organizations to shed light on the current state of carbon capture & storage (CCS) technology, feel that that their efforts so far reveal only part of the truth.
The full truth is that the U.S. taxpayers must not be put on the hook for funding any CCS initiatives. To be clear: We recommend no government funding for CCS. It is a highly speculative technology, unproven for commercial use, and one that will drain billions of dollars of resources when we have other viable and immediate clean-energy solutions ready for investment that will deliver immediate results.
President-Elect Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress should not give a single dime to an industry whose time has come and gone. If CCS is so such a great idea, let Wall Street and the coal industry pay for it – not taxpayers.
We urge our fellow organizations to stop parsing words and tip-toeing around this issue to avoid offending the President-elect, Congress, and this powerful industry. We owe it to the American people to be clear: No public funding for CCS."

ABOUT THECLEAN.ORG
TheCLEAN.org(http://www.TheCLEAN.org) is a collaborative movement of state and local organizations and individuals who will encourage and support policy makers at all levels of government to implement new energy policies. The Civil Society Institute worked with grassroots organizations across the United States to help organize the TheCLEAN.org campaign.

MEDIA CONTACT: Trish Butler, (703) 917-0611 or tbutler@sagecommunications.net