ASSOCIATED PRESS
CASPER, Wyo.
– Climate change is a man-made problem, but the solution doesn’t have to come
at the expense of fossil fuels, said Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon.
Gordon, who
spoke Jan. 24 at the Wyoming Press Association’s banquet in Casper,
said developing carbon capture technology could be the solution.
“This is a
climate crisis we really need to address,” said the first-term Republican
governor. “But we can only address it if we are serious about what the
solutions are.”
The School
of Energy Resources at the University of Wyoming has been researching
carbon capture technologies that could reduce pollution from burning coal to
make electricity in an effort to sustain the demand for Wyoming coal. Wyoming has
passed legislation to govern carbon sequestration and have received grants to
study the feasibility of carbon capture and sequestration and different ways of
burning coal, Gordon said.
Wyoming is
the nation’s top coal-producing state and is one of 13 states with no voluntary
or mandatory renewable energy requirements for electric utilities. Just 0.34
percent of Wyoming’s energy is produced from renewable resources,
according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
