Polar bears, children with tarred faces and melting ice caps seem to be everywhere these days. As Hollywood genuflects before Al Gore's documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, I am trying to determine what actual good is coming from all the noise on global warming.

The doomsday scenarios Greenpeace paints would scare any normal human, but are its answers realistic -- or even helpful -- when it comes to global warming?

I have no desire to debate whether or not global warming exists or if humans are the cause. There are plenty of bright minds studying the issue.

Let's start by examining what we can all agree on.

The United States imports too much energy from the Middle East, therefore helping to fund terrorist states because of our dependence on foreign oil. Pollution exists; we all want cleaner air and water. And our economy would benefit by lowering energy prices.

The doomsday environmentalists only see one aspect of the problem and fail to consider the economic realities that exist in a global economy. Pollution, energy demand and energy costs are three very diverse problems that will require a multifaceted approach involving conservation, innovation and diversification.

In the heart of the nation's crude oil production, the city of Odessa has been a leader in diversification and innovation. Odessa and Jewett, are two of the four finalists competing for the FutureGen initiative, a public-private partnership to develop the first zero-emission coal-fired power plant.

Odessa is a natural choice for the site because of its diverse energy background and extensive expertise in handling carbon dioxide in oil well recovery. FutureGen's coal gasification can eliminate pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides and convert them to useable byproducts such as fertilizers. In the future, the plant might also become a model hydrogen production facility for use in automobiles.

But the big payoff for the FutureGen research is the commercial grade means for the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide.

Whether or not we agree on the idea of global climate change, we can agree that too much carbon dioxide is being released into our atmosphere. While FuturGen is important to reduce America's production of carbon dioxide, it is essential for coal-fired plants going into production of electricity in growing countries like China and India. Without clean burning coal-fired plants, China and India will produce more carbon dioxide than the United States can reduce through any means.

The recent ad campaigns against building new coal power plants in Texas using tar-faced children is a prime example of how environmental extremism can get in the way of diversification and innovation.

The United States has more than 250 years' supply of coal that is ready for use in generating electricity. That is more energy than the Middle East has oil. And in the last 30 years, technological innovation for coal has lowered emissions by nearly one-third, while tripling the production.

These facts make coal a realistic and viable resource that we must continue to develop. There are no silver bullets and no simple solutions to our energy problems; however low- to zero-emission coal-fired power plants must be considered as a significant part of a comprehensive energy strategy.

Limiting national debate on increased domestic production and technological innovation like FutureGen would essentially shut out many of our possible energy solutions.

Extremists are trying to narrow the discussion, forcing a less intelligent debate on our energy security. Our future need not rely on the demagogues and naysayers, but on the individuals actually working to provide energy now and into the future.

I believe we will provide the solutions for our energy and environmental security as long as we remain committed to conservation, diversification and innovation.

Mike Conaway, a Republican, represents the 11th Congressional District of Texas consisting of 36 counties in Central and West Texas

You can also find this article posted on Mike Conaway's blog.