Mr. BLUMENAUER. I appreciate your clarification of that. As it stands now, the way that we are using coal indiscriminately, not dealing with the consequences of not just the carbon pollution, but, frankly, there are other pollutants that we have been struggling with for years because of the hazards to human health and to the environment, but the willingness to focus on ways to truly try and make it possible to use coal in a way that is environmentally sensitive. I think it's very important. It is important not just because the United States has vast amounts of coal, but it would be nice if we could use them in a way that was safe and environmentally sound; but we are also facing a situation where there is still heavy reliance on coal in China, in India.
We, in the Pacific Northwest, are breathing Chinese coal pollution in the Puget Sound area, in metropolitan Portland every day. So your work on the Commerce Committee, to be able to have some resources to try and move this research forward dealing with ways to truly make it environmentally benign, I think it's very important, establishing standards and sticking by them.
I will be coming to the floor soon to talk about another methodology that has been employed in the past, which is an underground gasification process, where you never bring the coal to the surface, that the process of conversion takes place in the actual coal seam. There are projects under way right now in Wyoming. It was actually a technology that was developed by Nazi Germany and in the Soviet Union in an earlier era dealing with gasification of coal, but has tremendous potential for being able to use coal in a way that is environmentally responsible.
I appreciate the work that is being done to help advance these technologies and others.
