WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell joined his Republican colleagues Thursday in introducing the American Energy Production Act of 2008, which would increase domestic energy production and help lower gas prices.

Included in the legislation is a measure authored by Senator Jim Bunning which would establish a program to help support and promote clean, coal-to-liquid fuels. “I appreciate Senator Bunning’s leadership on the issue of promoting greater use of technology to convert coal into liquid fuel,” Senator McConnell said. “The more fuel derived from coal we can use, the less oil we will need, thus reducing prices at the pump.”

Coal is a vital part of America’s energy production, and an important part of Kentucky’s economy and history. The coal industry creates over 60,000 jobs in Kentucky, including approximately 15,000 coal miners. Over half of the country’s electricity is generated by coal, and coal constitutes over 90 percent of America’s fossil-fuel resources.

“The coal we can mine in this country alone would be enough to supply our nation for more than 250 years,” Senator McConnell said. “What Saudi Arabia is to oil, America is to coal.”

The bill would also expand domestic energy production on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), in Alaska and through the development of oil shale in Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah. It would accelerate the development of advanced batteries to power plug-in hybrid vehicles, and encourage the construction of new refineries to bolster domestic supplies. And it would suspend filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for six months.

McConnell said, “the American Energy Production Act is not only good for our economy but for our national security as well. I urge my colleagues to support it.”

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