Budget & Policy

An article in the Nov. 22 issue of GHG Monitor concerning an analysis Bloomberg New Energy Finance performed on the California Cap-and-Trade Program incorrectly stated that the California Air Resources Board did not adjust its raw emissions data. The assertion was based on a BNEF statement released alongside its analysis of CARB’s report of 2012 […]

IN THE INDUSTRY Hitachi recently announced it has begun construction on a Carbon Capture Test Facility that will capture carbon emissions from SaskPower’s Shand Power Station (298MW) near Estevan, Saskatchewan in Canada. Using a chemical scrubbing method with an amine-based absorbent, Hitachi said the test facility will be able to capture 120 tons of CO2 […]

Emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, may be 1.5 times higher than current Environmental Protection Agency estimates, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last week.

A week after the former head of the National Energy Technology Laboratory was indicted on a charge of obstruction of justice, the Department of Energy began a public search for a new permanent NETL director.

An attempt to block New York state from participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an effort among Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states to reduce carbon emissions, was dismissed by the Third Judicial Department of the New York State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division this week.

The White House is calling for public comment on technical corrections made to its revised Social Cost of Carbon estimates—used to gauge the future social and economic costs of emitting a ton of carbon into the atmosphere—following months of outcry from Republicans and industry groups over charges of a lack of transparency in the SCC revision process.

The Environmental Protection Agency plans on being “very flexible” on the implementation of expected new proposed standards for greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal-fired plants that are due out in June 2014, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said this week.

Chris Smith, the Obama administration’s nominee to serve as assistant secretary of energy for fossil energy, said in a recently released set of questions-and-answers by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that all components of carbon capture and storage have been demonstrated and he believes CCS is “ready” for deployment on new power plants.

Nearly 30 large corporations based in, or operating in, the United States are using an internal price of carbon in their business strategies—including several in the energy and utility sectors—according to a new report released this week by CDP, an environmental data company.

The White House released its Fall 2013 Unified Agenda last week, with new rules from the Environmental Protection Agency governing greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing power plants still in the works and both listed as “other significant” priorities.

IN CONGRESS The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources did not consider Chris Smith’s nomination as Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy as originally planned this week. The committee said it rather intends to delay the meeting until Dec. 17, when it is then expected to consider Smith’s nomination. IN THE EPA Close […]

New projects for large oil and gas compressors or pipelines, chemical plants and refineries using shale gas that have been proposed over the last two years could represent a 91 million ton increase in greenhouse gas emissions—equal to the emissions from 20 coal-fired power plants—according to a report from the Environmental Integrity Project released last week.

Regions of igneous rocks of the upper ocean crust near Australia, Japan, Siberia, South Africa and Bermuda could possibly store large volumes of carbon dioxide, according to University of Southampton scientists in a report published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Republicans on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology are criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to “transcribe, webcast or otherwise record” public comments made at the Agency’s 11 listening sessions on expected new rules on greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal-fired power plants.

Anthony Cugini, the former National Energy Technology Laboratory director, pleaded “not guilty” to the charge that he obstructed justice at his arraignment before Magistrate Judge Cynthia Eddy Dec. 10, according to the Clerk of Courts.

Former Environmental Protection Administrator under President George H. W. Bush, William Reilly, said last week that expected Agency rules that will set greenhouse gas emission standards for existing coal-fired power plants should provide flexibility state-by-state and a “reasonable” timeframe for meeting the standard.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory is moving forward with plans for competing a pair of new support services contracts.

President Obama’s nomination to Under Secretary of Science, Franklin Orr, largely breezed through his confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this week.

The Department of Energy this week released a final $8 billion loan guarantee solicitation for projects that “support innovative advanced fossil energy projects that avoid, reduce or sequester greenhouse gases”—including carbon capture and storage—which largely mirrors the draft version but for the inclusions of “new provisions intended to facilitate applications, ensure quick review and foster successful public-private partnerships,” according to the DOE.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and other legislators from Kentucky filed an amicus brief this week in a case before the Supreme Court challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s new greenhouse-gas permitting program for power plants and other large stationary sources.

IN THE ADMINISTRATION The Export-Import Bank of the United States announced last week that it will no longer provide financing for coal-fired power plants unless they use carbon capture and storage technology. The new policy aligns the bank with the carbon reduction goals in President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and follows a similar shift from […]

The Department of Energy issued a request for proposals this week for a new contract to provide technical and management support services for the Office of Fossil Energy this week.

Natural gas is set to overtake coal as the largest source of U.S. electric power generation by 2040, the Energy Information Administration said in its Early Release Overview of the Annual Energy Outlook 2014, released this week.

Two prominent members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are calling for hearings on the climate warming potential of methane emissions coming from the oil and gas sector.

Scientists from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Ohio State University and the University of Minnesota said last week that they are designing a new kind of geothermal power plant that will store CO2 emissions underground “and use it as a tool to boost electric power generation by at least 10 times compared to conventional geothermal power.”

A new proposal from Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) that aims to dramatically overhaul tax incentives for clean energy would provide an investment credit for facilities that install carbon capture and storage technology that “results in at least a 50 percent reduction in the carbon dioxide emissions rate,” according to draft language unveiled this week.

While the Environmental Protection Agency has pointed to Southern Company’s Kemper County pre-combustion carbon capture and storage facility in Mississippi as a model for new rules that would essentially mandate CCS for new coal-fired power plants, Kemper should not be used as a primary basis for the rules, Southern Company CEO, President and Chairman Tom Fanning said late last week.

Two Obama Administration nominees to science-related posts at the Department of Energy underlined their commitment to moving new technologies from the experimental stage to the commercial stage in an appearance before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee this week.

The Obama Administration announced late this week its intent to nominate Janet McCabe to serve as the Environmental Protection Agency’s new Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation.

The Sierra Club filed a lawsuit against the FutureGen Alliance and Ameren Energy Resources Co. last week over the FutureGen 2.0 oxyfuel-combustion carbon capture and storage project planned for western Illinois.