By Scott Malone
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts (Reuters) - Top energy advisors to the two U.S. presidential candidates agreed on Monday on the need to convert coal-burning electricity plants to capture carbon emissions, but differed on how to pay for it.
An cost-effective way to retrofit power stations to trap and store carbon dioxide rather than releasing it into the atmosphere, would be "the most important single breakthrough the world has ever made" to address global warming, said Jason Grumet, an adviser to Democrat Barack Obama at a debate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Obama, an Illinois senator, calls for $15 billion a year in federal funding to help spark innovation in carbon capture, said Grumet, founder of the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Republican John McCain advocates starting with about $2 billion in federal research funding that could grow to $20 billion over 5-10 years as a cap-and-trade program that charges companies for their carbon emissions starts to generate more revenue, said R. James Woolsey, a McCain adviser.
"I don't think that the amount of commitment is going to be substantially different between the two, at this point hypothetical, presidencies," said Woolsey, who served as CIA director during the Clinton administration.
Coal-fired plants currently account for about half of the United States' electricity supply. In carbon sequestration, the carbon dioxide given off by burning coal is captured and pumped into underground reservoirs.
(Editing by Alan Elsner)
