Secretary Ernest Moniz is generally regarded by all parties as one of the brightest minds on energy. With that in mind, he made some statements last week that shed some light on the current administration and their motivations. President Obama and the current administration have been accused with waging a ‘war on coal’, creating legislation and imposing regulations nearly impossible for some coal-producing entities to comply with. Moniz shared his thoughts that the middle ground should be the goal of energy providers. “We start by saying we must control CO2 emissions. So then, after many years of talking the talk, the issue is walking the walk in terms of developing the technology to control those emissions.”

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Moniz went on to point out that the Obama administration has put in more than $6 billion into “carbon-capture” research. The idea is to turn coal into a clean energy; the problem is the technology is still cost prohibitive. “The goal of innovation in this business is to drive the cost down. Getting the cost down makes policy a lot easier.”