Budget & Policy

The Mississippi legislature approved a pair of measures this week aimed at smoothing out the economics of Mississippi Power’s Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle facility currently under construction in the eastern portion of the state. 

2/15/13 The following interview with outgoing Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy Chuck McConnell was conducted by GHG Monitor Reporter Tamar Hallerman. TH: Why have you decided to leave the Department of Energy? CM: I knew coming into the job that these appointments are not meant to last forever. I came with a specific […]

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 2/15/13 ON THE DOMESTIC FRONT Two polls commissioned by environmental groups and released following President Obama’s State of the Union address on Wednesday conclude that a majority of people want to see government action on climate change. A Natural Resources Defense Council survey conducted immediately after the President’s address by the […]

President Barack Obama issued one of his strongest calls for Congressional action on climate change in years in his State of the Union address this week, threatening to bypass lawmakers entirely if they fail to move quickly to address the issue. 

Days after President Obama stressed the need for Congress to act on climate change in his State of the Union address, two Senate Democrats unveiled legislation that would set a $20 price on carbon emissions. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 2/22/13 IN CONGRESS A group of nearly two dozen Democrats have pledged to make daily speeches on the House floor about the need to urgently address climate change. Headed by House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the lawmakers announced the formation of the ‘Safe Climate Caucus’ during […]

A key committee in the European Parliament this week voted in favor of a last-ditch effort to prop up the carbon price on the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme in a move that could eventually trickle down to allow for more money for low-carbon technologies like carbon capture and storage. 

Some carbon capture and storage stakeholders are beginning to highlight what they describe as a “disconnect” between the regulatory requirements for CO2 sequestration established by the Environmental Protection Agency in recent years and what they say is economically feasible for companies involved. 

The Indiana Senate’s Utility Committee voted this week to leave the fate of a proposed coal gasification plant to the state Supreme Court. 

The development company behind a poly-generation carbon capture and storage project in west Texas is ramping up lobbying efforts for Congress to alter a provision in the tax code that would save the project $150 million. 

The head of the development company behind the Hydrogen Energy California gasification project is hoping to declare financial close on the $3.9 billion poly-generation plant by the end of the year. 

Gina McCarthy is said to be the Obama Administration’s pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency and could be nominated within the coming days, multiple news outlets reported this week. 

Advocates from both sides of the carbon tax debate received backing this week from two separate reports, each making opposite claims about the potential effects of a carbon pricing scheme. 

Two energy scenarios released this week by Royal Dutch Shell predict that carbon capture and storage technology will be widely deployed in the power sector by the end of the century, but each estimate differs as to when that adoption will occur. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 3/1/13 IN CONGRESS The co-chairs of the recently-created Bicameral Task Force on Climate Change sent a letter to dozens of inspectors general this week requesting information about what each government agency can do to act on climate change. Co-chairs Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said they asked […]

The President’s top energy and climate aide stopped short this week of confirming that the Obama Administration plans to move forward with limits on greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants. 

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg slammed coal-fired power in a high-profile address this week near Washington, calling the fuel source a “dead man walking.” 

Carbon capture and storage supporters in California said they hope the resignation of a key supporter in the state Senate will not affect the status of a key regulatory bill making its way through the legislature’s upper house. 

Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a pair of bills Feb. 26 aimed at helping Mississippi Power pay for its $2.88 billion Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle facility. 

Across-the-board spending cuts go into effect today for federal agencies like the Department of Energy, with most programs expecting to see more than 8 percent slashed from their budgets. 

Outgoing Secretary of Energy Steven Chu listed his personnel choices as one of his proudest accomplishments as head of the Department of Energy in what is expected to be his last public speech in his current role. 

Commonwealth Edison and a group representing alternative electricity suppliers in Illinois are separately challenging FutureGen’s 20-year power purchase agreement in court. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 3/8/13 IN CONGRESS The House passed a stop-gap spending measure March 6 that would extend funding for government agencies through the end of the fiscal year largely at current levels. The lower chamber voted 267-151 in favor of the measure, which would keep government programs running beyond the expiration of the […]

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing this week indicated that some lawmakers continue to be on entirely different pages regarding the future of coal in the U.S. 

The European Union’s executive arm said it will launch the second round of its clean energy competition next month in what will likely be the last chance for carbon capture and storage project developers to vie for substantial European funding for demonstration plants. 

State regulators approved a 15 percent rate increase this week for Mississippi Power customers to begin paying off the construction debt on the utility’s Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle facility. 

The Department of Energy’s Fossil Energy R&D program will likely see a $25 million budget cut in the coming months, the White House said, as more details emerged this week about the impact of the across-the-board funding cuts know as sequestration that went into effect on March 1. 

Ernest Moniz, President Obama’s pick to lead the Department of Energy, has written extensively about the need for the U.S. government to further invest in carbon capture and storage RD&D. 

A leaked European Commission white paper on the future of carbon capture and storage indicates the need to look beyond the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme to deploy the technology on a wide scale. 

Researchers at the University of South Florida and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia said this week that they have found a hybrid material that can more efficiently separate and capture CO2 from flue gas compared to other adsorbents currently on the market.