Budget & Policy

GE announced late last week that it has signed a two-year contract with the National Energy Technology Laboratory to test a sensor system that aims to continuously monitor CO2 in harsh environments like storage wells. 

The Environmental Protection Agency late last week asked a U.S. appeals court to rehear a case that resulted in a decision to throw out an agency rulemaking aimed at curbing SO2 and NOx pollution from coal and gas-fired power plants. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 10/19/12 ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT The Norwegian government announced that it will be effectively doubling its carbon tax on offshore oil and gas operations beginning Jan. 1. The Norwegian Ministry of Environment said in a press release last week that it will be raising the tax on operations in the Norwegian […]

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 10/19/12 AT KEMPER: SOUTHERN NOT SURPRISED BY ENVIRO REACTION TO PROJECT A senior Southern Company official said that the utility giant is not surprised by the response it has gotten from some in the environmental community about its subsidiary’s Kemper County carbon capture and storage project. In an interview with GHG […]

Lindsay Kalter GHG Monitor 10/19/12 CANDIDATES SPAR OVER COAL ALLEGIANCE DURING PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE The battle between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney over who will emerge as the race’s most ardent coal champion reached a new level of contention during the second presidential debate on Oct. 16. What began as a question from […]

The uncertain future the U.S. coal industry is currently facing is reminiscent of the nuclear industry’s experience after the Three Mile Island disaster in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Southern Company executive Chris Hobson said this week in a keynote here at the International Pittsburgh Coal Conference. 

Up to 39 percent of the U.S. coal fleet could face retirement by 2016 due to low natural gas prices, a decrease in projected power demand and uncertainty surrounding Environmental Protection Agency regulations on the industry, according to a recent report. 

Many executives addressing the International Pittsburgh Coal Conference this week pegged the relative stagnation of the country’s carbon capture and storage industry to the hyper-partisanship that has characterized Congress over the last several years, and few appeared optimistic that things could turn around following the November elections.

The head of the FutureGen Alliance said that despite being behind schedule, he is confident that FutureGen 2.0 can meet all project benchmarks if it is allowed to move ahead with Phase II by the end of the year. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 10/26/12 ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT A South Korean utility is picking up a large stake in the Don Valley carbon capture and storage project in eastern England, Bloomberg reported this week. An unidentified South Korean utility will be the second Korean investor in 2Co Energy’s Don Valley project, the news outlet […]

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 10/26/12 AT KEMPER: MISS. POWER SAYS PROJECT COSTS, SCHEDULE STILL ON TARGET Mississippi Power said its Kemper County integrated gasification combined cycle project is on schedule and on budget in its most recent report to the state’s public service commission. The utility, a subsidiary of the Atlanta-based Southern Company, announced late […]

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 10/26/12 CLIMATE CHANGE NOT MENTIONED IN DEBATES FOR FIRST TIME IN 24 YEARS The failure to mention climate change during Monday’s third and final presidential debate marks the first time in a generation that the topic has not been discussed during any of a presidential cycle’s debates, environmental groups noted this […]

The Environmental Protection Agency is on track to publish a final rule early next year that would exclude geologically sequestered CO2 from its definition of hazardous waste, the agency said. 

There appears to be a disconnect between what North American carbon capture and storage project operators and energy regulators are seeking in terms of long-term liability protections and what is being made available on today’s insurance market, interviews conducted by GHG Monitor have revealed. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 11/2/12 IN CONGRESS Top Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week called for the panel’s Republican leadership to organize a hearing on climate change in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that ravaged much of the Northeast earlier this week. “Hurricane Sandy is exactly the type of extreme weather […]

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 11/2/12 CITING CLIMATE CHANGE, BLOOMBERG THROWS SUPPORT BEHIND OBAMA In a surprise endorsement less than a week before the election, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Nov. 1 that he is endorsing Barack Obama for a second term as president due, in part, to his stance on climate change. In […]

Even without federal climate legislation in place, the U.S. is on track to meet its emissions reduction goal for 2020, according to a discussion paper released late last week by Resources for the Future. 

Southern Company said this week that it will begin marketing the coal gasification technology used at its subsidiary’s Kemper County carbon capture and storage facility currently under construction in eastern Mississippi. 

Denbury Resources will be receiving all of the CO2 captured annually at the Lake Charles Clean Energy project in Louisiana, a subsidiary of Leucadia Energy announced earlier this week. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 11/9/12 AT EPA A conservative-leaning D.C. newspaper reported earlier this week that the Environmental Protection Agency has devoted more than 50 staff members to finishing its greenhouse gas performance standards for new fossil fuel-fired power plants. Senior Editorial Writer Conn Carroll wrote in the Washington Examiner that the level of staff […]

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 11/9/12 AT KEMPER: SOUTHERN CEO SAYS CONSTRUCTION, COSTS ‘ON TARGET’ Southern Company Chairman, CEO and President Thomas Fanning said this week that despite some early cost overruns at its subsidiary’s carbon capture and storage plant in eastern Mississippi, he is confident the company can keep balance sheets and construction schedules under […]

California’s Air Resources Board will hold the state’s inaugural auction for emissions allowances next week in preparation for its cap-and-trade scheme. 

President Barack Obama presided over the largest-ever single injection of capital into the carbon capture and storage industry during his first term in office when his 2009 stimulus bill allocated $3.4 billion to the technology. As he enters his second term in office, though, the surest bet for CCS support will likely come through the continuation of the Administration’s regulation of greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, CCS experts said in post-election interviews this week. 

Green groups declared victory for environmental policy and clean energy after Democrats secured key wins in the White House and Senate in Tuesday’s elections. 

Both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney’s campaigns spent considerable time and money trying to woo voters in the coal-heavy battleground states of Ohio, Virginia and Pennsylvania, and industry and environmental groups spent tens of millions in ads trying to influence public opinion. But on Tuesday, Obama swept all three states, causing many in the environmental world to declare victory for clean energy and climate change mitigation and a striking defeat of coal interests. 

11/16/12 As is our annual practice, GHG Monitor will not publish next week in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. The next regular issue will be in your inbox Nov. 30. As always, we will publish a special issue should any major news break in the interim.    

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 11/16/12 IN THE STATES Democrat Jay Inslee was officially declared the winner of Washington’s gubernatorial race late last week, installing into office a darling of environmental groups who has spoken at length about the need to boost support for clean energy and act on climate change. Republican challenger Rob McKenna conceded […]

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 11/16/12 AT KEMPER: BARBOUR DEFENDS HIS SUPPORT OF PROJECT Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour defended his previous support of Mississippi Power’s Kemper County carbon capture and storage project in a letter to the editor this weekend in the Sun Herald. “The Sierra Club’s claim that Kemper County residents will lose millions […]

Initial data analysis to determine the success of one of the world’s first enhanced gas recovery field tests has led to unclear results so far, according to researchers. 

A Southern Company executive said this week that bringing the utility’s coal fleet into compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards could translate into a 10 to 20 percent rate increase for its customers.