Budget & Policy

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 2/28/2014 The energy industry needs to plan for a future when there will be a cost of carbon, said Senior Counselor to President Obama, John Podesta, at the ARPA-E Summit in Washington this week. “I think the energy industry has to plan for an eventuality where the externalities, the cost of […]

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 2/28/2014 The United States can achieve significant and affordable reductions in its greenhouse gas emissions by displacing power from high-emitting coal-fired power plants with power from under-used natural gas plants, the Clean Air Task Force said in a report released this week. The report, which is being presented to the Environmental […]

IN THE STATES California sold 19.5 million carbon allowances at the price of $11.48 each during its sixth auction held Feb. 19, according to the state’s Air Resources Board. The state also auctioned 9.26 million advance allowances that can be used beginning in 2017 at $11.38 per allowance. The auction was in line with analysts’ […]

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 3/07/2014 Two Democratic Senators questioned why industry hasn’t done more to advance carbon capture and storage technology at a coal technology symposium held in Washington this week. Sens. Joe Manchin (W.V.) and Mark Warner (Va.) said that furthering CCS is vital to keeping fossil fuel—and particularly coal—viable in a carbon-constrained world. […]

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 3/07/204 The Obama Administration slashed funding for the Department of Energy’s coal research budget in its Fiscal Year 2015 request to Congress this week, proposing $302.4 million for the program, a 23 percent decrease from 2014 enacted levels. Despite the proposal of a new program for natural gas carbon capture and […]

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 3/07/2014 The House of Representatives easily passed legislation this week that seeks to roll back the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulation setting CO2 emission standards for new power plants. The 229-183 vote largely fell along party lines, although 10 Democrats, mostly from coal states, joined Republicans in approving the measure. Speaking […]

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 3/07/2014 Although the Obama Administration trimmed overall funding for the Environmental Protection Agency in its Fiscal Year 2015 budget, released this week, addressing climate change and improving air quality were named as top funding priorities, with the Administration requesting $1.03 billion for such efforts, $41 million higher than FY 2014 enacted […]

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 3/07/2014 The United States needs to take the lead on advancing carbon capture and storage technology, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said at a coal technology symposium held in Washington this week—arguing that other countries that are becoming increasingly reliant on coal to meet growing energy demands, such as China and India, […]

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 3/07/2014 Despite a “robust” regulatory regime surrounding carbon capture and storage in the United States, a regulatory framework that supports the commercialization of CCS is still needed to advance the technology, Kipp Coddington, a partner at the law firm Mowrey Meezan Coddington Cloud LLP, said late last week. Coddington, speaking at […]

Karen Frantz GHG Monitor 3/07/2014 The Environmental Protection Agency could incorporate end-use energy efficiency programs into its anticipated rule setting emission standards for existing power plants, according to a paper published by the Harvard Environmental Law Program’s Policy Initiative this week. “End-use energy efficiency programs have been adequately demonstrated as cost-effective methods for achieving energy […]

ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT In advance of a meeting of the European Council scheduled for later this month, the EU’s Environment Council met in Brussels early this week to debate the controversial 2030 policy framework for climate and energy proposed in January. The new CO2 emission reduction targets outlined in the proposal were set at […]

Martin Schneider GHG Monitor 3/14/2014 JACKSON, Miss.—Former Department of Energy Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Chuck McConnell made an impassioned case for enhanced oil recovery as the primary economic driver for the capture of carbon dioxide in a speech here last week, pushing back against what he called the “myth” that EOR is a niche […]

Martin Schneider GHG Monitor 3/14/2014 Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) signed into law last week a bill providing $15 million for a new carbon capture and storage test center that would explore novel uses for captured CO2 and develop new markets for carbon. The bill provides the $15 million contingent upon the state receiving $5 […]

Martin Schneider GHG Monitor 3/14/2014 The Department of Energy’s FY 2015 budget request renames the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships, rebranding the program as Storage Infrastructure “to better represent the characterization and field activities that occur in the RCSPs and other small and large-scale field projects in a variety of geologic reservoirs in onshore and offshore […]

Martin Schneider GHG Monitor 3/14/2014 The House Energy and Commerce Committee this week launched in an investigation into the Environmental Protection Agency’s decisionmaking on the proposed New Source Performance Standards for power plants, which essentially require carbon capture and sequestration for new coal plants. In a March 12 letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, Committee […]

Martin Schneider GHG Monitor 3/14/2014 The current and future viability of carbon capture and sequestration technology again took center stage at a House hearing this week, with lawmakers on the Science, Space and Technology Committee taking aim at the Environmental Protection Agency’s New Source Performance Standards as well as regulation of carbon dioxide used in […]

National Energy Technology Laboratory Director Anthony Cugini was abruptly removed from his position and escorted off-site by security yesterday, GHG Monitor has learned, though the reasons for the move remain unclear. 

A Colorado firm has won a $15 million grant from the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy to further develop an imidazole-based carbon capture system, according to Sen. Mark Udall. 

Opponents of the Hydrogen Energy California project sought to draw attention to what they say are the proposed poly-generation plant’s flaws during joint state-federal public hearings this week.

A team led by Fluor has won the Department of Energy's new contract to manage the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. 

Republicans on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee sought this week to peg remarks the Obama Administration’s pick to head FERC previously made about natural gas and carbon capture and storage as outside the mainstream. 

Congress inched toward a potential government shutdown this week as Republican leaders in the House of Representatives backtracked on a plan for a mostly “clean” Continuing Resolution, moving instead to attach language defunding President Obama’s Affordable Care Act to legislation that would keep the Department of Energy and other government agencies running on Oct. 1 and beyond. 

The National Energy Technology Laboratory experienced an upheaval in its top management late this week, when Director Anthony Cugini was placed on administrative leave for reasons that still remain unclear. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 9/20/13 IN CONGRESS Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) announced plans the week to introduce a bill supporting recent Obama Administration efforts to limit short-lived pollutants like hydrofluorocarbons, methane and black carbon. Murphy said he is working on the legislation with fellow Democratic Senators Robert Menendez (N.J.) and Al Franken (Minn.) and that […]

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy told lawmakers this week that carbon capture and storage is feasible and sufficiently demonstrated enough to be listed as a compliance technology under carbon emissions standards for power plants. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell revived familiar “war on coal” rhetoric this week during an ultimately unsuccessful push to pass an anti-carbon regulation measure. 

Attorneys general from 17 states say they are concerned that the Environmental Protection Agency is poised to exceed its statutory authority under the Clean Air Act in its development of carbon limits for existing coal plants in the coming years.

A Philadelphia-based environmental group is criticizing Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.) for fighting against proposed cuts to the National Energy Technology Laboratory’s budget and instead is calling on the state’s senior senator to focus solely on promoting energy efficiency and renewables.

The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a retooled carbon pollution rule for new power plants today that, as expected, sets separate CO2 emissions standards for coal and gas units and provides incentives for plant developers to install carbon capture and storage technology. 

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy confirmed that the agency factored the Obama Administration’s recently-updated social cost of carbon estimates into its retooled carbon standards for new coal plants and defended the controversial changes during a Sept. 20 press conference.