I thank my colleague and friend from Iowa. And we have made great strides. We appreciate Iowa's efforts because so much corn has gone to Iowa ethanol production; Illinois corn is now going to the feed lots in Texas, which used to be, which…
I thank my colleague and friend from Iowa. And we have made great strides. We appreciate Iowa's efforts because so much corn has gone to Iowa ethanol production; Illinois corn is now going to the feed lots in Texas, which used to be, which your corn used to go to. So when my producers are looking at the static cost of a bushel of corn, I always tell them, where do you think you would be without new demands going to ethanol?
I have a flexible fuel vehicle. It runs on 85 percent ethanol. And I had one in the last Congress, 2 years ago. I could not fill it up anywhere in my district. Now I can go all throughout my district, go to a regular retail pump and fill it up with 85 percent ethanol fuel. And it is usually, on average, 20 cents cheaper a gallon. So we are making great strides. It is a great story to tell, especially in this area. And as much as, you know, we are from Illinois, you are from Iowa, by definition you have to be supportive of ethanol. And we are. The President addressed it last night. And we also acknowledge the fact that there are other ways you can produce ethanol, and we want to encourage that because we want all the country to have the benefits that we are having and the country would have based upon energy independence. And that is where this debate has to be.
But I am not here to talk about ethanol tonight. I am here to talk about another overlooked resource which we use partially, not to its fullest extent, and that is coal. Now, we all know that we use coal to generate electricity. And a lot of people do not realize that 50 percent of the electricity generation in this country is from coal. And there are new technologies out there that will help us use clean coal technologies, as the President addressed last night. We want to encourage that. We also address that in the energy bill.
Clean coal technologies, the products of research and development conducted over the past 20 years, include more than 20 new lower cost, more efficient and environmental compatible technologies for use by electric utilities, steel mills, cement plants, and other industries. Coal already generates more than half our Nation's electricity, and it is the largest single source of the overall domestic energy production, more than 31 percent of the total.
When we talk about energy, though, we sometimes get confused, because energy is lot of different things. Energy is electricity generation. But energy is also fuel. So we have to be careful that we clarify for this debate all the benefits.
In looking at coal, we have over 250 years of demonstrated reserves, right now, untapped, 250 years' worth of demonstrated reserves. Coal is a readily available domestic resource.
Furthermore, new clean coal technologies, such as the gassification combined cycle, IGCC, which a lot of people know about, coal to liquid and coal to gas technologies. And this is not pie-in-the-sky stuff. The German Army, in World War II, used technology called fissure tropes to take coal and to turn it into fuels to run and operate the German war machine. Fifty years ago.
So what we are proposing and continuing to make sure that we understand it in this arena is that we can take these 250 years' worth of accessible coal reserves and continue to use it for electricity generation, but also use it to make fuel. And it is a cleaner process. So the debates we have had on the floor of the House is, part of it, the refinery issue.
We are addicted, I would say, I would agree with the President, we are addicted to crude oil from imports. So how do we address that addiction? One
way we address it is make sure we have our local reserves. That is going the renewable fuels debate. But it also means that we take coal and we can, through current technology available today, we can turn it into gas, which addresses our natural gas challenges, which are really affecting manufacturing and home heating costs for the average consumer. And we can take coal and we can turn it into fuel.
Now, in a best-case scenario, we take that coal, liquid fuel, and then mix it with a renewable fuel and then we have a lot more independence. You have the reserves of coal, you have the local refinery. So you have the coal mine, you have the coal mining jobs, you have the refinery, you have the building the refinery, you have the refinery jobs, and then you have the transportation to the retail location, all in the cycle within the United States, not dependent on any other foreign source.
We have been talking and we are encouraged with our discussions with the administration, and we want to continue to push this issue because I think the public really does not appreciate the great reserves that we have.
The Illinois coal basin, if you look on a geological map, is basically the State of Illinois minus Chicago and Cook County. It also bleeds into western Kentucky a little bit, it bleeds into southwestern Indiana, but it is the outline of the State of Illinois. That is where an abundant access of coal is. And of course we know the other great coal producing States, Wyoming, Montana, West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky; and so there are people willing, ready and able to take, to get back into this arena.
But there are always additional challenges that have to be faced. The existing obstacles to move this forward are as follows: there is a high capital investment to begin with. The disadvantage of the environment that we are in today is that we are paying 60 to $65 a barrel for crude oil. There was a time, in my lifetime, when it was $18, and they were capping marginal oil wells because it cost more money to get it out than you could sell on the market. It is good for the consumer, bad for oil exploration. Now at $65 a barrel, you have the opportunity to say, if there is a consistent market signal, that that $65 is going to be here for years to come, that the market will say there is a good possibility of return. I am going to make this billion dollar capital investment. Can the Federal Government help? What can we do because of this high capital investment for the plants?
The capital costs of the plants could be reduced by the experience gained in the actual construction and operation of commercial facilities, in addition to a focused effort by Congress and the administration to address the risks and capital hurdles for new development.
Perceived environmental concerns. My colleague who is leading this Special Order addressed that. Environmental concerns will be addressed by using clean coal technology, IGCC, to reduce emissions of the criteria pollutants. In addition, indirect liquification of coal processes produce clean zero sulfur liquid fuels. We have a debate of high sulfur fuels. We passed regulations that are going to affect the trucking industry. Low sulfur fuels can be produced through coal to liquification, and that addresses one of our major concerns.
You know, to conclude, and maybe join with my colleague in other energy debates, because it is, you kind of develop expertise or a forte based upon the area in which you live, or maybe the committee on which you serve. I am very honored and pleased to serve on the Commerce Committee; and I, in my 9 years, I have served on the Energy Subcommittee. So we have seen this coming, these hurdles that we have in front of us. And we finally were able, after many, many years, to pass a comprehensive piece of energy legislation; but we have to do more.
I want to bring to my colleagues attention the benefits of coal, not just for electricity generation, but for coal to gas, coal to gassification, coal to liquid technology and its use. Coal to liquid technology provides geographic diversity for domestic refining capacity, not all situated in the South on the gulf coast. It could be in the Midwest, could be in Iowa, could be in Illinois and improves national and economic security by lessening dependence on foreign oil and substituting plentiful, more affordable U.S. coal.
Coal to liquid technology also allows for the capturing of carbon dioxide emissions which serves as a bridge to a hydrogen fuel future through polygeneration, which is the linking of multiple types of plants into one such as the coal production of liquid fuels, electricity hydrogen; and that is what the President is proposing, and that is what we are excited about in the whole future gen proposal.
See, we are going to capture carbon dioxide, and through this process you can reinsert it back into the ground; and if you have an area like southern Illinois where you have marginal oil wells, that is going to help the additional oil that is left that is hard to draw out of the ground to be drawn out. So we have great opportunities in the future.
You know, coal has been given a bum rap for a long time. I think what those of us who believe in coal and those who invest and take risks and capital expenses want is just to know what the playing field is so that we can allow technology to meet the standards and there is consistency in regulations.
You know, the problem is when there is inconsistent rules and no one knows what the rules of the playing game is that the risk is higher. If you are going to invest billions of dollars, you want to lower the risk, you want to know what the rules are. We are now at a point with technology and the work we have done through the Department of Energy and clean coal technology research programs that we can get there with clean coal tech for electricity generation. We can turn coal into gas which will affect our natural gas crisis, and we can turn coal into liquid fuels which will help to decrease our reliance on foreign oil. So with that, my colleague, I appreciate the time.