Jul. 21--BILOXI -- In the final session of the National Governors Association summer meetings Monday, governors debated climate change and energy policy.

Governors talked about provisions of the Waxman-Markey bill aimed at reducing climate change, which also would require that a certain amount of power come from renewable sources such as the sun and wind.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the bill, which has drawn criticism from those who say although it would make the U.S. work on climate change, nations such as China and India would not, which would negate progress made by the U.S. They also say it would place a litany of new regulations that would be costly.

Others said the United States should work on climate change regardless of what other countries do. The cost to customers would be minimal, they said.

After the discussion, Gov. Haley Barbour said wind and solar technology currently aren't practical to produce large amounts of power for Mississippi.

"The Tennessee Valley Authority, one of our big electric utilities, has two big wind farms in their area. They are not in Mississippi," Barbour said. "Those two wind farms operate 20 percent of the time. They are turned off 80 percent of the time because there is not enough wind."

He also said there isn't enough capacity to store electricity in significant amounts. Barbour also said studies have shown solar power isn't a viable option for the state. He also said he disagrees with renewable energy rules that would give no points for nuclear power.

Karen Alderman Harbert, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy, said there hasn't been much effort to take advantage of energy sources available in the United States and that all forms of energy should be used.

"We can't pick and choose our solutions for the future," Harbert said. "We don't have silver bullets. I say we need a silver buckshot. We need it all. We need natural gas, and we need to produce more of it here at home. It creates American jobs, it creates American industry, it certainly increases our energy security.

"We need nuclear, we need clean coal .... We need renewables. We absolutely need renewables."

Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter said his state has a high concentration of shale, but companies interested in using it don't have a good handle on what that process would do to the ground water and don't know how it would affect the environment.

He said those questions need to be answered first.

The last time the NGA meeting was held in Mississippi was 1935, in Biloxi.

The convention was also set to take place here in 2006, but Hurricane Katrina derailed those plans. Barbour said Mississippians have entertained NGA guests with banquets and other events that showcased the state as the birthplace of America's music, and also one that is recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

"We remember after Katrina that every state sent volunteers, and many states sent National Guard, law enforcement, equipment," Barbour said. "Our sister states have been great and this is a chance for people to say thank you and our people have had that attitude. We are thanking people for what they did for us in our time of need."

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