Budget & Policy

A group of environmental and energy agency leaders and public utility commissioners from 15 states asked the Environmental Protection Agency this week for “a stringent but flexible framework” as it develops new rules for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from existing coal-fired power plants.

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources reported out the nomination of Chris Smith to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy this week, despite the lone vocal opposition of Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.). Stabenow said at a Dec. 17 business meeting that she was not yet satisfied that Smith had a “sufficient plan” for dealing with natural gas exports.

Republican members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee accused the Environmental Protection Agency of “muzzling scientists” in a letter sent to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy this week.

The Environmental Protection Agency late this week issued a long-awaited final rule that would exclude geologically sequestered CO2 from its definition of hazardous waste.

SEE YOU NEXT YEAR! The next issue of GHG Monitor will be on your desk Jan. 10. Please note: the offices of EXCHANGEMONITOR PUBLICATIONS will be closed from Dec. 21 through Jan. 5. Happy Holidays.

IN THE STATES California’s cap-and-trade program is “well-constructed and strong,” according to a new analysis from the Environmental Defense Fund of the carbon market’s first year. The report’s conclusions include that “the successful state-run auctions are evidence of a well-constructed, strong and adaptive policy;” “the secondary market for California carbon allowances is robust and healthy;” […]

The soon-to-be Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe, recently reaffirmed his support for carbon capture and storage technology and said that CCS technology could provide jobs for coal miners in the southwest region of the state, according to a Jan. 4 report from the Bristol Herald Courier.

Former National Energy Technology Laboratory Director Anthony Cugini was found dead earlier this week.

The Department of Energy will provide more than $250 million in cost-shared funding to Leucadia Energy, LLC for its planned petroleum coke-to-chemicals gasification plant in Louisiana that would be outfitted with carbon capture and storage technology, according to a notice published in the Federal Register late this week.

The total cost for Mississippi Power’s flagship Kemper County IGCC project has now reached more than $5 billion—more than $2 billion above the initial expected project cost of $2.8 billion—according to a monthly report the company filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 3 for the project’s costs through November 2013.

After more than a three-month delay, the Environmental Protection Agency’s New Source Performance Standards rule limiting carbon dioxide emissions from new fossil fuel-fired electricity generating units was published by the Federal Register Jan. 8, kicking off the 60-day public commenting period that will run through March 10.

Twin bills that take aim at the Environmental Protection Agency’s draft regulation setting CO2 emissions standards for new power plants were introduced in the House and Senate this week.

Only minor revisions were made to the final version of an Environmental Protection Agency rule that will conditionally exclude geologically sequestered CO2 from its definition of hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, according to the rule published by the Federal Register Jan. 3.

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources once again took up the nomination of Chris Smith to be Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy this week, reporting his nomination out to the full Senate.

IN THE INDUSTRY Combined cycle natural gas power plants emit less than half the amount of carbon dioxide as coal power plants per unit of energy produced, according to a recent study from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists. The study, accepted for publication in Earth’s Future, also found that, “as a result of the […]

This week the Government Accountability Office rejected a challenge over the new management contract for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which was awarded to a team led by Fluor Federal Petroleum Operations in September.

The Department of Energy will provide $1 billion of cost-shared funding to the FutureGen 2.0 carbon capture and storage project, the Department announced in a Record of Decision this week.

A subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a measure this week that seeks to roll back the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulation setting CO2 emissions standards for new power plants, and while debating the bill at markup, Republicans took aim at carbon capture and storage technology, essentially mandated for new coal plants by the EPA rule.

FirstEnergy, an Ohio-based group that is one of the nation’s largest investor-owned electric companies, will produce a report on policies it could adopt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in response to demands from its shareholders, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said this week.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy took tough questions from Republicans on a draft rule limiting greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants at a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee this week, which examined President Obama’s Climate Action Plan.

The FY 2014 omnibus appropriations bill approved by Congress this week largely supports coal interests and boosts Department of Energy funding for carbon capture and storage and power research and development, but at the same time cuts funding for clean air and climate regulation at the Environmental Protection Agency.

Summit Power’s Texas Clean Energy Project is renegotiating its purchase power agreement with CPS Energy after the Texas-based utility company allowed the agreement to expire at the end of 2013, citing project construction delays and a changing energy landscape.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy said that coal should continue to play an essential role as part of a diverse energy portfolio in its new energy platform, “Energy Works for US,” which was unveiled this week.

A point of contention has emerged among some officials in the Enhanced Oil Recovery industry over a draft guidance document released alongside the Environmental Protection Agency’s finalized rule that excludes sequestered CO2 from its definition of hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s Science Advisory Board voted unanimously at a meeting this week not to further review the science behind the EPA’s proposed rule that essentially forces coal-fired power plants to use carbon capture and sequestration technology to meet new greenhouse gas emission standards.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule that would limit greenhouse gases from new coal-fired power plants has come under legal fire with a new lawsuit from the state of Nebraska challenging the new source performance standards under the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

President Obama’s nominee to be Under Secretary for Science at the Department of Energy, Dr. Franklin Orr, pointed to major barriers to commercial adoption of carbon capture and storage technology—including “a lack of a clear market signal, pore space ownership, long-term liabilities and cost relative to other technology options,” factors that had been identified by the 2010 Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage—in written response to questions from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on his views on CCS.

IN THE INDUSTRY A subsidiary of Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) has signed a 10-year license agreement with Chem-Mod LLC that will allow Chem-Mod to use the subsidiary’s combustion additive, which is expected to boost the performance of Chem-Mod’s own coal additive technologies that reduce nitrogen oxides, mercury and other emissions during combustion. “We’re pleased to […]

The use of shareholder pressure as a tactic for pushing power companies to consider ways to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions has long been gaining traction among some groups concerned about the environment, and last week’s announcement that FirstEnergy had agreed to issue a report on policies it could adopt to curb emissions in the face of a shareholder resolution is again putting the issue in the spotlight as 2014 appears set to be a banner year for such resolutions and other means of persuasion by investors. 

ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT The United Arab Emirates and Denmark signed an agreement last week to collaborate on advancing carbon capture and storage technologies. The agreemend was signed by H.E. Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of State and CEO of the energy company Masdar, and Danish Minister of Development Cooperation, Rasmus Helveg Petersen Jan. […]