DOE NOMINEE PLEDGES ‘FULL TRANSPARENCY’ ON CCS PROGRAMS

Mike Nartker
GHG Monitor
11/15/13

Chris Smith, the Obama Administration’s nominee to serve as assistant secretary of energy for Fossil Energy, pledged this week to provide “full transparency” on the Department of Energy’s carbon capture and sequestration programs if confirmed. “It’s something we’re proud of,” Smith said of DOE’s CCS programs during a hearing the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held on his nomination. “We’ve invested over $6 billion over the course of the last several years in developing carbon capture and sequestration, lower the costs and make sure we’re putting into place all the understanding of the risks and the procedures necessary to store CO2 in geologic formations and through enhanced oil recovery.”

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) called on Smith to provide a detailed report of DOE’s CCS efforts, including projected costs and time lines for getting the technology to commercial-scale, noting that he had previously pushed for legislative language that would require the Department to provide such information annually. “I have long been concerned about the administration’s inability to demonstrate that it’s got an effective plan in place to develop this technology,” Portman said. “I think it is more important now than ever that policymakers here on the Hill to have the best available data on CCS given that [the Environmental Protection Agency] has now mandated that CCS be installed on all of our new coal-fired power plants and we have a lot of them in Ohio, and they’re already under siege.”

‘These Base Technologies Aren’t New’

During this week’s hearing, Smith faced questions from Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) over whether the EPA is being “reasonable” in its new proposed rule that would largely require CCS technologies be installed in new coal-fired power plants. “The technology isn’t currently, and may never be, commercially and economically viable,” Barrasso said. Citing testimony former Assistant Energy Secretary for Fossil Energy Charles McConnell gave before a House panel last month, Barrasso said, “His statement was the cost of current CO2 capture technology is much too high … to be commercially viable. He explained technology exists for separation and capture of CO2 at the plant, but it increases the cost of generating electricity by about 80 percent—those are costs that of course consumers would have to bear. Finally he noted that affordable solutions may be decades away with current funding.”

Smith declined to comment directly on the EPA’s proposed rule, or on McConnell’s statements. Smith did say, however, that “these base technologies aren’t new,” noting that approximately a dozen large-scale CCS projects are either in development or in operation around the world. “We’ve seen development projects in operation and being built currently in real time. So my job if confirmed in this role is to continue to push the technologies, continue to look to lower the cost of capture and continue to realize the importance of  this particular technology top ensure that coal is part of the clean energy economy of the future,” he said.

The White House nominated Smith to serve as assistant secretary for Fossil Energy in September. He has held the position in an acting capacity since February, after McConnell stepped down, and previously served as principal deputy assistant secretary. Smith served as FE’s deputy assistant secretary for Oil and Gas from 2009 to 2013. Prior to his tenure at DOE, Smith spent most of his career at Chevron, working in a variety of positions there between 2002 and 2009. He also worked at Texaco before its refining operations merged with Chevron’s. Smith graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and the University of Cambridge and also served as an operations officer and task force engineer in the U.S. Army.