A new technology touted by a Republican state legislator from Hempfield, Eric Nelson, could assist the U.S. in continuing to benefit from fossil fuels while reducing the negative environmental impact.

Carbon capture injection wells allow natural gas and petroleum plants to contain carbon emissions in underground wells. Nelson wants the state Department of Environmental Protection to take a leading role in approving the wells’ use.

Nelson is right when he calls the new technology “an exciting area of developing technology in the energy sector.” It could allow the U.S. a wider window to consume natural gas and oil while other, greener technologies are further developed and protected. That wider window would allow Americans to benefit from the sale of mining and drilling rights, to benefit from domestic development of energy sources and to benefit from the family-supporting American jobs domestic gas and oil development create. And it would allow the U.S. to do so while still reducing carbon emissions and while still developing other energy technologies that then would be better positioned to create jobs for Americans in the future.

Nelson is right — the state should embrace this opportunity.