Publications: GHG Reduction Technologies Monitor

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/12/2015 The Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory last week announced a funding opportunity of up to $3 million to support research into carbon capture from coal-relevant, low concentration CO2 sources. “Technology proposed in this topic area may include, but is not limited to: coal-relevant lifecycle GHG emissions such […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/12/2015 Refusing to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants is not a recommended course of action for states moving forward, Bill Becker, Executive Director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA), said late last week at an event hosted […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/12/2015 Australian energy company AGL announced late last week that it has joined with multinational industrial gas company Air Liquide to pursue carbon capture and utilization on the AGL Torrens Island power station in Adelaide, Australia. Once completed, the post-combustion retrofit is expected to capture 50,000 tonnes of CO2 from […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/12/2015 A provision in the House version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, reported out of subcommittee this week, would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from using funding to carry out proposed regulations to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from existing and new coal-fired power plants. The […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/12/2015 DC Circuit Court judges this week found that lawsuits brought against the Environmental Protection Agency concerning its proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants were premature as the rule has yet to be finalized. The rule in question would set federally determined emissions reduction targets for each […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/12/2015 Rate increases proposed by Mississippi Power last month to meet the cost of the Kemper County Energy Facility, a new build coal plant that will employ carbon capture, utilization and storage technology, have been challenged in a filing submitted to the Mississippi Public Service Commission last week. The increases […]

GHG Monitor 6/12/2015 ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT Leaders of the G7 group of nations this week released a declaration committing to limiting global temperature rise to 2°C in part by decarbonizing the global economy by 2100. “We commit to doing our part to achieve a low-carbon global economy in the long-term including developing and deploying […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/5/2015 SCS Energy has decided to drop plans for its Hydrogen Energy California project to use the project’s captured CO2 in enhanced oil recovery and instead will focus on storage. “HECA plans to permit the project using storage instead of EOR, at least initially. This is possible for HECA because […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/5/2015 Executives from six major oil and gas companies voiced their support for carbon pricing late last week in a letter to top officials with the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. The May 29 letter, which is signed by CEOs from BG Group, BP, Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Statoil […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/5/2015 With Mitsubishi Heavy Industries having scaled up its carbon capture technology to commercial scale for NRG Energy’s Petra Nova WA Parish project outside of Houston, Texas, the project manager for the Petra Nova effort said this week that if the project is a success, it may serve to quiet […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/5/2015 The Petroleum Technology Research Center this week celebrated the official opening of the Aquistore carbon storage project at SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Power Station in Saskatchewan, Canada. The project will serve as the storage site for CO2 captured from the Boundary Dam project not being used in enhanced oil recovery. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/5/2015 Lawmakers from coal states pressed Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz this week on potential reliability issues that could result from projected coal plant retirements in coming years during a House Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing on the Energy Department’s recently released Quadrennial Energy Review. Several factors, including environmental […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 6/5/2015 The state of Wisconsin may be unable to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, Governor Scott Walker (R) told President Barack Obama in a May 21 letter. The proposed regulations, dubbed the Clean Power Plan, would require states to develop […]

GHG Monitor 6/5/2015 ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT Royal Dutch Shell reported its planning application for the Peterhead carbon capture and storage project to the Buchan Area Committee of the Aberdeenshire Council this week. The application will now move on for consideration by the full council on June 18. The Peterhead project will retrofit CCS technology […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/29/2015 Given the large role that enhanced oil recovery is expected to play in the commercialization of carbon capture and storage, it is vital that U.S energy policy treat the process on par with non-EOR storage of carbon, Sasha Mackler, Vice President of Summit Carbon Capture for Summit Power Group, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/29/2015 The World Bank stressed the need to act now to develop the climate mitigation technologies that will be needed in the future to stave off climate change in a new report released last week. The report notes the eventual need for bio-carbon capture and storage as a necessity to […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/29/2015 The United States could feasibly achieve much deeper emission reductions if the Environmental Protection Agency were to increase the stringency of its carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, according to a report released this week by the World Resources Institute. The report addresses the U.S. goal of […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/29/2015 The cost overages and delays that have plagued Southern Company’s Kemper County Energy Facility have now cost the project a significant buyer. South Mississippi Electric Power Association (SMEPA), an electric cooperative that had been pursuing a 15 percent ownership of the new-build coal-fired power plant, announced last week that […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/29/2015 Implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants could more than double the number of coal-fired power plant retirements expected by 2040, according to a report released by the Energy Information Agency late last week. The report was requested by the House […]

GHG Monitor 5/29/2015 ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT Engineering firm Wood Group Kenny has been selected to provide technical advisory services to the U.K. Department of Energy and Climate Change regarding carbon capture and storage policies and potential future projects, the firm announced this week. Wood Group Kenny has recently worked with Shell on its Peterhead […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper (D) pushed back last week against calls by opponents of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emission standards for coal-fired power plants for states to not comply with the regulations once finalized. In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), an ardent opponent […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 Canada has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 in its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) submitted to the U.N.  Framework Convention on Climate Change late last week. The INDCs are public commitments made by countries stating what they intend to do […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 Senate appropriators approved their version of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations bill this week, providing an increase of $39 million above the Obama Administration’s request for the Department of Energy’s fossil energy research and development program. The bill, which would fund fossil energy R&D at $610 […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 President Barack Obama stressed this week the importance of addressing climate change as a national security issue and noted the progress the United States has made on the issue. Obama specifically cited the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standard for new and existing coal-fired power plants that would […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 The National Association of Clean Air Agencies, an organization comprised of the state air regulators who will be tasked with developing state action plans to come into compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, this week released an in-depth encyclopedia of […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 5/22/2015 Mississippi Power last week filed three proposed rate plans with the Mississippi Public Service Commission to recover eligible costs for the construction of the Kemper County Energy Facility, a new build coal plant that will employ carbon capture, utilization and storage technology. The proposals, which could raise customer costs […]