Porter to tour foreign energy facilities

WASHINGTON -- Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., is among five House Republicans scheduled to visit Europe next week to tour energy facilities in three countries.

The nine-day taxpayer-funded trip will include stops at nuclear and oil and gas entities in France, Azerbaijan and Turkey

"The congressman's constituents demand a more diversified energy portfolio with the price of oil at more than $100 a barrel and nationwide scrutiny of coal-fired power plants," said Porter spokesman Matt Leffingwell.

The lawmakers plan to depart Sunday from Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., and fly to France.

They will tour the Areva nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in La Hague, France and meet with officials of the French ministries of defense and environment who have jurisdiction over fissile material.

A staunch opponent of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, 100 miles northwest of Las Vegas, Porter wants to learn how France meets 78 percent of its energy needs with nuclear energy, Leffingwell said.

Porter is open to the idea of reprocessing nuclear fuel in the United States to avoid the necessity of nuclear waste storage.

The lawmakers are scheduled to leave France on Wednesday and travel to Azerbaijan, which is bordered by Russia to the north and Iran to the south.

They plan to touring the Sangachal oil and gas terminal, one of the world's largest fuel processing facilities and a key source of energy for the United States.

Meetings are scheduled with Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev; Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov and Minister of Economic Development Heydar Babayev.

After leaving Azerbaijan on Friday, the congressional delegation plans to visit Adana, Turkey and tour the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline, which stretches from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean.

Following the tour, the lawmakers plan to travel to Ankara and meet with Ali Babacan, Turkey's minister of foreign affairs, and members of the Turkish parliament who serve on energy and natural resources committees.

Porter and the other lawmakers -- Republicans Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Phil English and Bill Shuster, both of Pennsylvania, and John Sullivan of Oklahoma -- are scheduled to return Jan. 15 to Washington.