SAN DIEGO - California is backing Wyoming's bid to land a coal gasification project that aims to prove Western coal can work as a feedstock to a new generation of "clean" coal energy conversion plants.

Governors from both states signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday afternoon.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal acknowledged that California and other major electrical consumers are demanding more electricity and requiring that it come from cleaner sources. However, he stressed that no entity should require that new coal-based power projects be limited to a design called integrated gasification combined cycle, or IGCC.

"It may well be that IGCC is the viable option. But this in no way obligates those involved in the Frontier Line to do IGCC," Freudenthal said during a press conference here on Monday. The Frontier Line is a proposed electrical transmission project that would link Wyoming and California.

Rather than burn coal to release energy, IGCC is a process that places coal under high pressure, and with a chemical catalyst, extracts gas from the coal. The gas is then burned to generate electricity, which produces far fewer emissions.

Freudenthal noted that though the Energy Policy Act of 2005 calls for a Western clean coal demonstration project, the federal government has yet to allocate any money to it. He said the Wyoming/California agreement is meant to "sharpen the point" behind efforts to get federal funding for the project.

Freudenthal said it makes sense to prove that clean coal technologies work in Wyoming because the Cowboy State supplies coal for about 36 percent of the nation's electrical generation.

"It's our intent to pursue this and pursue it aggressively," Freudenthal said.