Budget & Policy

Dueling budget plans released this week by House Republicans and Senate Democrats diverged sharply on issues like clean energy research, oil and gas development on federal lands and environmental regulations, demonstrating a widening chasm between the parties on energy. 

The costs of constructing Mississippi Power’s Kemper County gasification plant previously capped by the state regulators has remained steady at $2.88 billion through the end of January, the Southern Company-owned utility told state regulators last week in its most recent monthly status report on the progress of the 582 MW plant. 

The Department of Energy’s acting Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Chris Smith told GHG Monitor this week that the across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration are delaying many research activities that fall under the Office of Fossil Energy’s purview, but indicated that the office’s carbon capture and storage demonstration projects will largely remain unaffected. 

A group of House and Senate Democrats circulated a discussion draft of carbon pricing legislation this week that would tax the country’s largest polluters based on their reported greenhouse gas emissions while largely exempting the operators of carbon capture and storage projects. 

A stimulus-funded carbon capture and storage project in Texas would have “negligible to minor” adverse impacts on the surrounding area’s air quality, geology and groundwater but ultimately adheres to the goals of the Department of Energy’s Clean Coal Power Initiative program, the Department has concluded. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 3/15/13 IN THE ADMINISTRATION The Obama Administration appears set to submit its Fiscal Year 2014 budget request to Congress in early April—approximately two months behind schedule. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said March 12 that the request would “probably” be sent to lawmakers the week of April 8. “The president […]

The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions this week joined the growing list of organizations that have recently called on the Obama Administration to take more aggressive emissions-reduction measures in the absence of Congressional action.

The CEO of the FutureGen Alliance said that the industry consortium will not let recent legal challenges get in the way of its plans to move forward with its $1.65 billion carbon capture and storage project. 

Tamar Hallerman and Lindsay Kalter GHG Monitor 3/22/13 IN CONGRESS The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee reported Sally Jewell’s nomination for Interior Secretary this week on a 19-3 vote. The vote came March 21, six weeks after President Obama nominated the chief executive of outdoor equipment retailer Recreational Equipment Inc. to lead the Department […]

The Global CCS Institute this week detailed upcoming changes to its organizational structure that will make the trade group more “regionally focused” but “globally connected.” 

The University of Regina has sued two companies over the rights to a carbon capture technology developed at the Saskatchewan institution. 

The Obama Administration is expected to soon finalize guidance directing all federal agencies to incorporate the impact of major projects on climate change under the National Environmental Policy Act, but observers appear split on how such a decision could affect carbon capture and storage projects. 

The Senate will begin voting today on the first of hundreds of amendments to a Fiscal Year 2014 budget blueprint, many of which are aimed at putting lawmakers on record about controversial climate-related issues like carbon taxes and the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. 

The National Mining Association said the Obama Administration should abandon the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed new source performance standards and instead enact policies that better encourage the deployment of advanced coal and carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies. 

Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) placed a hold on Gina McCarthy’s nomination for Environmental Protection Agency Administrator this week. 

The President’s upcoming Fiscal Year 2014 budget request will establish a new $25 million prize for the first natural gas combined cycle plant to integrate carbon capture and storage technology, the White House announced. 

Greenhouse gas emissions performance standards for future fossil fuel plants being finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency look to be behind schedule and may not be complete by next month’s deadline.

Senators indicated late last week that they are overall not supportive of a carbon tax but lean in favor of the Obama Administration maintaining its authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. 

Basalt rock formations could hold the key to permanently storing CO2 while minimizing the risk of induced seismicity, according to a pair of Yale researchers. 

The President’s team of science advisers underscored the need for the Obama Administration to continue its work to reduce the regulatory obstacles associated with the deployment of carbon capture and storage technology if it wants to move forward with addressing climate change in its second term. 

Developers of a proposed coal gasification plant slated for construction just outside of Rockport, Ind., defended their plans in front of the state’s House Utility Committee March 27, arguing that the project is a good economic bet in the long-term because natural gas prices are likely to increase over time. 

Department of Energy officials overseeing the Office of Fossil Energy’s Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage program have “not always effectively managed” the projects receiving stimulus funding from the scheme, the DOE Inspector General said in a March 26 audit report. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 3/29/13 IN THE ADMINISTRATION The Obama Administration announced late this week that it will send its Fiscal Year 2014 budget request to Congress on April 10. The request will come approximately two months later than usual—a delay the White House has said was caused, in part, by the Administration’s focus on […]

Carbon capture and storage industry stakeholders said this week that the natural gas capture prize recently announced by the White House will likely do little to spur the development of new technology. 

The former head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s policy office has accused the White House Office of Management and Budget of often breaking its own transparency pledges while vetting major federal rulemakings, sometimes stifling environmental regulations with little explanation and limiting public disclosure. 

The Environmental Protection Agency is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a federal appeals court ruling that vacated its ‘good neighbor’ rulemaking aimed at limiting criteria pollutants emitted from coal plants like sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide. 

A committee within the Indiana House of Representatives advanced legislation this week that could open up a new round of regulatory review for a proposed $2.8 billion gasification plant, a measure developers say would kill the project if passed. 

The Obama Administration’s pick to lead the Department of Energy will receive the backing of two respected voices on energy next week during his confirmation hearing with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. 

Southern Company confirmed this week that it has withdrawn its request for a $1.5 billion federal loan guarantee to finance its Kemper County gasification plant currently under construction in eastern Mississippi. 

Austin-based Skyonic Corp. confirmed this week that it will break ground on its $125 million carbon capture retrofit of a Capitol Aggregates-owned cement plant near San Antonio in the coming weeks.