Nevada Presidential Caucus - Media Advisory

Former DOE Executive Joe Lucas Available for Comment on U.S. Energy Policy

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --

Who Joe Lucas, Executive Director, Americans for Balanced Energy
Choices (ABEC)

What Urges candidates to address questions regarding energy policy and
is available to comment on energy policy and impact

When Week of January 14

Where In-person Las Vegas or via teleconference

Why U.S. energy policy is not only a vital environmental and national
security issue, it's a key economic issue, especially for low- and
middle-income families.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says that
electricity use in our country has grown more than 130 percent in
the last three decades and they project that demand nationwide
will nearly double in the next 20 years. EIA also estimates that
Nevada will double its electricity consumption every six-to-seven
years.

Recently, electricity prices in Nevada have increased 18 percent
and overall have increased 100 percent over the past two decades.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has vowed to use
all means possible to prevent new coal-fueled electricity plants
from being built in Nevada, making the state the nation's
centerpiece for the dialog about clean-coal technologies.

Visual Clean-coal vans and grassroots participants are available for
photo and video opportunities at various local candidate rallies
and public gatherings.

Lucas urges participants and news media to ask the following
questions of candidates:

-- What are your specific plans to ensure that clean-coal
technologies like carbon capture are commercially available?

-- How much of the federal budget will you commit to research and
development of clean-coal technologies?

-- How can the United States play the global leadership role
needed to make sure this technology is not only developed and
deployed here but also exported to other countries like China
and India?

Where is the energy issue in current political debate?

Because of coal's prominence in the nation's energy mix, ABEC believes
it should be a major focus of the national campaign dialogue. Since
affordable energy and economic growth are important to every American,
the candidates should continue to tell American working families how
they view coal's role in the nation's energy future.

Background

ABEC believes the U.S. should continue to use a mix of fuels to power
future energy needs and coal should continue to play a role in
generating electricity to ensure affordable, reliable power while
continuing progress to improve air quality and the environment.

Because coal in America is abundant and affordable -- and because the
technology to make it cleaner continues to improve -- experts agree
that American coal is a fuel of the future.

Fast Facts

-- The U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates that electricity
generated from clean coal will be nearly 50 percent higher in
2025 than in 2001

-- Energy costs have doubled in the last five years

-- Electric prices have increased at a modest 3 to 4 percent a year

-- Coal is the most abundant and affordable fuel source in the
United States

-- Coal generates 50 percent of America's electricity

-- Americans with annual incomes below $50,000 are being hit the
hardest

-- Coal generates electricity at one-third the cost of other major
fuels

-- U.S. Department of Energy data - Based on the average cost in
dollars per million Btu for 2006 (annual average for the full
year):
Coal - $1.69
Petroleum liquids - $8.28
Natural gas - $7.31

-- A recent study* predicts that the residential and transportation
energy bills of America's poorest families will rise from 23
percent of after-tax income in 1997 to an astonishing 46 percent
this year

ABEC is a non-profit, non-partisan citizen group that advocates for energy
policies that balance meeting America's growing demand for electricity with
the need to protect the environment. ABEC will advocate support of these
policies for continued economic growth and prosperity for
America's working families. For more: http://www.AmericasPower.org.
* Source
The Rising Burden of Energy Costs on American Families, 1997-2007,
Eugene M. Trisko
Available at http://www.americaspower.org/Issues-Policy/Research

SOURCE ABEC

Clinton Pope, +1-702-557-8301 (cellular), clinton.pope@rrpartners.com, for
ABEC; or Brad Jones of ABEC, +1-703-585-3633 (cellular),
bjones@balancedenergy.org