STEARNS OUTLINES COAL’S POTENTIAL IN MEETING OUR ENERGY NEEDS – AS OBAMA STATED “THIS IS AMERICA… YOU CAN'T TELL ME WE CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO BURN COAL THAT WE MINE RIGHT HERE”

Washington, Feb 24, 2009 - “Our nation must reduce its dependency on imported energy sources,” stated Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Ocala). “America has the world’s largest coal reserves, enough to meet current demand for 250 years.” As a senior member of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, Stearns was asked by the Stanford Law School to submit an academic paper regarding the nation’s energy future for publication in its Energy Symposium.

Explained Stearns, “By applying new and existing technologies, including clean-coal technology, we can produce more energy from coal. In addition, there exists a process that turns coal into a liquid fuel that can replace gasoline; South Africa now gets 30 percent of its transportation fuel from this coal-to-liquid process.” As President Obama said during the campaign, "This is America. We figured out how to put a man on the moon in 10 years. You can't tell me we can't figure out how to burn coal that we mine right here in the United States of America and make it work."

Stearns paper on America’s coal reserves and the coal-to-liquid process has been published in the Stanford Law & Policy Review (Volume 19| 2008, Issue 3, Symposium: Creating a Legal Framework for Sustainable Energy). The paper is also available on Stearns’ web site (www.house.gov/stearns).