Budget & Policy

The Department of Energy this week awarded grants to nine universities for R&D projects that will aid in the creation of “innovative” clean coal technologies, the Department said. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 06/08/12 AT FUTUREGEN 2.0: DOE BEGINS CONSIDERATION OF ALLIANCE’S PHASE II APPLICATION The Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy began vetting the FutureGen Alliance’s application for Phase II carbon capture work on FutureGen 2.0 this week, the Department confirmed. DOE said it began examining the Alliance’s application for oxy-combustion capture […]

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 06/08/12 IN CONGRESS Two of the highest-ranking Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee called for the Republican committee leadership to hold a hearing on the status of carbon capture and storage technology earlier this week. In a letter to Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Energy and Power Subcommittee […]

Tenaska Inc., the utility that has attempted to build a 602 MW coal gasification and natural gas hybrid plant in central Illinois for the last four years, is once again reevaluating the future of its Taylorville Energy Center after the Illinois General Assembly failed to greenlight the project before its legislative session came to a close May 31. 

The full U.S. House of Representatives began consideration of its version of the Fiscal Year 2013 appropriations bill for energy and water programs today, kicking off debate of the $32.1 billion measure. 

Oil producers are beginning to significantly ramp up extraction projects using CO2 enhanced oil recovery operations to target water-saturated oil deposits previously considered uneconomic, according to one EOR expert.

The electric power generation industry could save $100 billion in compliance expenditures for a host of upcoming federal environmental regulations if the Environmental Protection Agency allows for more flexibility for its upcoming rulemakings, a new Electric Power Research Institute study says. 

A combination of materials, operating conditions and environmental factors is likely to have caused the premature corrosion of dozens of recently-commissioned wet flue gas desulfurization systems across the country, according to a technical root cause analysis recently released by the Electric Power Research Institute. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 06/01/12 IN THE INDUSTRY An American Electric Power subsidiary in Kentucky withdrew its request this week to retrofit an aging 800 MW coal-fired unit in the eastern portion of the state with scrubbers to cut down on SO2 and other toxic emissions. Kentucky Power said it wants to reevaluate its options […]

The Environmental Protection Agency should tighten its emissions performance standards to mandate that all new fossil fuel-fired power plants incorporate carbon capture and storage technology, environmental groups argued this week, while industry representatives countered that the technology is not developed enough to be required via regulations. 

Many coal-heavy electric generating utilities are betting on natural gas as the way to comply with a series of upcoming Environmental Protection Agency regulations, but several companies are also looking to diversify their portfolios in order to safeguard against any future regulations or interruptions. 

Decades-old fossil fuel-fired electricity generation produces a “disproportionate” share of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions in the power sector compared to newer units, a new Government Accountability Office report concludes.

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 05/25/12 IN CONGRESS The Senate this week confirmed two Obama Administration nominees to serve on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as well as a new head for the Energy Information Administration. The Senate agreed by unanimous consent May 24 to approve John Norris for a second term as a Democratic Commissioner […]

Senators representing coal-rich states sharply criticized Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s Clean Energy Standard this week, saying that the proposal in its current form could hurt the U.S. economically by cutting electricity generation from coal at a time when countries like China ramp up new development in the sector.

Wyoming energy authorities this week kicked off consideration of a recent proposal from Gov. Matt Meade that calls for the state to establish pre-approved underground corridors for CO2 pipelines on federal lands. 

A small electric utility is hoping to stimulate a new market surrounding carbon capture and utilization technologies with a recently proposed $10 million prize. 

The Midwest could face a “major challenge” in bringing its coal fleet into compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently-finalized air toxics standards by the 2015-2016 deadline, according to a new report.

Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) this week criticized proposed cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency’s grant programs for state and local water programs, a move requested earlier this year by the Obama Administration to free up more funds for air quality and climate change programs within the Agency.

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 05/18/12 ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL: OBAMA ADDS ‘CLEAN COAL’ TO ENERGY LIST President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign sparked a stream of criticism after it quietly added ‘clean coal’ to a list of preferred energy policies on the campaign website late last week following criticism from House Republicans. A tab on ‘clean […]

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 05/18/12 AT TAYLORVILLE: OPPONENTS CONTINUE TO OPPOSE PLANT DESPITE CHANGES Several opponents of Tenaska’s Taylorville Energy Center (TEC) continued to speak out against the central Illinois project in recent days despite significant plant design changes made by the utility in order to garner more political support in the state. In the […]

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 05/18/12 IN DOE The Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory issued a funding opportunity announcement late last week soliciting bids for projects that are looking to develop deep subsurface monitoring sensor technologies for sequestered CO2. NETL said it is looking to fund four multi-year projects with $4 million total that […]

Acting Under Secretary of Energy Arun Majumdar, who also serves as director of Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, will leave the Department of Energy next month, DOE Secretary Steven Chu announced in a May 9 e-mail to employees. 

Operators of some large-scale CO2 storage projects say that while they are largely not concerned about potential induced seismicity that could occur as a result of CO2 injection into the subsurface, public opinion of perceived risk could shape their worries as much as actual geologic risk. 

Performance standards for new fossil fuel-fired power plants recently introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency will likely not yield new carbon capture and storage projects, a recently released Bloomberg Government report concludes. 

Both the Department of Energy and GE announced plans this week to help lower the cost of coal gasification technology, efforts that if fruitful could help bolster some projects that have stalled or teetered in recent months due to higher than expected costs.

If pure numbers are the only indicator, international investment and development in large-scale carbon capture and storage projects has stalled over the last three years, according to a new study. 

In an exclusive Q&A with GHG Monitor, CONSOL Energy Vice President of Research & Development and FutureGen Alliance Chairman of the Board Steve Winberg discusses investment in carbon capture and storage and the future for FutureGen 2.0. 

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 05/11/12 AT TAYLORVILLE: TENASKA FLOATS PLAN TO TEMPORARILY FORGO COAL GASIFICATION COMPONENT Tenaska Energy may temporarily forgo plans for a coal gasification plant at its proposed Taylorville Energy Center in the hopes of gaining eleventh-hour approval for the project from the Illinois state legislature, the company confirmed this week. In a […]

Tamar Hallerman GHG Monitor 05/11/12 ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT The United Kingdom has announced that it will move forward on an overhaul of its electricity market, which will likely include a provision to encourage carbon capture and storage by offering project operators long-term financial incentives to sell their electricity produced to the grid. In an […]

The Energy Information Administration projects that even under a national Clean Energy Standard that would award nearly full credits to coal plants equipped with carbon capture and storage capabilities, those plants would have a practically nonexistent role in total power generation.