Coal is, and will be for the foreseeable future, a key source of energy for the United States. Therefore, it's important for North Dakota and the nation that we reduce any environmental harm done producing energy from coal. That has given rise to the phrase "clean coal." Noise on the political front in Washington has made it hard to get the conversation about energy around to the research necessary to make clean coal a reality. But that may change today.

U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu will join North Dakota's two U.S. senators, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, at the National Energy Center of Excellence on the campus of Bismarck State College this afternoon to make, according to an advisory from Conrad's office, "an announcement on the future of clean coal as a viable energy option for North Dakota and the nation."

Clean coal could use a boost, and this just might be it. Coal and power industries in North Dakota have made serious commitments to the development of clean coal technologies, a necessary step in the process of experimentation, research and development needed for greening up coal-fired electrical power plants and coal-to-gas operations. But if the nation is to really benefit from clean coal - the stark reality is that the need for coal is a must - then the whole process needs to move forward expeditiously. Financial help from Washington can bump up the timetable for clean coal.

The coal and power industry in North Dakota also needs some sign from the Obama administration as to the rules and regulations that will be in place for the next several decades related to plant emission standards and other environmental criteria. Not knowing the lay of the land puts industry in an untenable position when it comes to making huge capital investments, such as for the development of new power plants with expensive new clean coal technology.

For all of the talk about wind, solar and nuclear energy, and how they can make the nation energy self-sufficient, what happens to the coal-fired production of energy and coal gasification will have a higher impact. If we can develop efficient clean coal technologies, then wind, solar and nuclear energy industries will have the time to mature and take over fulfilling a larger share of the nation's energy needs. Without coal, the road forward will be rough, if not impassable.

What Secretary Chu, President Obama's point man on energy, has to say about North Dakota coal today will be critical to the state for the near future and beyond. It's important that it be more than a gratuitous political nod to Conrad and Dorgan. It needs to be substantive and part of a comprehensive national energy policy that has balance and foresight.

North Dakota will be listening.