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Stop the presses, Phil King applauded by greens
The Quorum Report - March 25, 2009

State Rep. Phil King readily admits he harbors pretty strong doubts about the notion of man-made global warming and doesn’t lose much sleep over carbon-dioxide emissions. So it might seem a little strange that the Weatherford Republican and one-time chairman of the now-disbanded House Regulated Industries Committee is carrying a sweeping bill to capture and sequester CO2 generated from coal-fired electric-generation plants. And stranger still that he has the enthusiastic backing of House Democrats like RafaelAnchia of Dallas and Mark Strama of Austin, and at least the tacit support of Texas Public Citizen director Tom “Smitty” Smith. “I think this is the first time in my legislative lifetime that they’ve endorsed anything I’ve done,” King quipped after he laid out House Bill 469, dubbed the “clean coal” bill. “The point is, this is a pretty good marriage.

The House Energy Resources Committee left the measure pending while King and others refine some of the language. But HB 469 received a pretty warm reception by the panel and most of the witnesses. Former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, representing the energy company Summit Power Group, said the enactment of the legislation would help pave the way for a huge coal power plant project in Ector County that is expected to produce hundreds of jobs. Summit President Eric Redman said the project would generate not only electric power, but also provide tons of valuable CO2 that could be injected into near-dormant oilfields in the Permian Basin to help extract the hard-to-get-to oil. Rep. Rick Hardcastle (R-Vernon) said the measure might give Texas a headstart if the Obama administration chooses to impose stricter regulations on carbon emissions in an
effort to contain global warming. “We don’t have a clue what Washington is going to do to us next,” he said. King said that even though he thinks global warming is trumped-up crisis, it makes sense to care about carbon emission.

“I’m a pragmatist,” he said. “I want cheaper electricity. The way to get that is to burn coal. But you can’t burn coal unless you capture the carbon. And that’s why I’m carrying this bill.”