Publications: GHG Reduction Technologies Monitor

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/14/2014 A climate deal reached this week between the United States and China, under which the United States commits to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions and China vows to peak its emissions by 2030, has been hailed as a historic step forward by the White House, but has garnered a […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/14/2014 Four advanced gasification projects will receive $16 million in funding from the Department of Energy, DOE announced late last week.  The selected projects will “focus on developing technologies that can significantly reduce the cost of producing hydrogen-rich syngas derived from fossil fuels, enabling coal resources to both improve U.S. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/14/2014 The continued use of coal in the United Kingdom past 2030 should not be “assumed away,” and is likely to set the country on a path to miss its stated climate goals, according to a report released this week by the Centre for Energy Policy and Technology at the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/14/2014 While much attention in Europe has been paid to the technical and financial challenges associated with carbon capture, if investment doesn’t pick up into carbon storage research the full-scale deployment of CCS could be halted just as it begins to gain momentum, according to a new report published this […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/7/2014 While great progress has been made in the carbon capture and storage industry with 22 large-scale CCS projects in operation or under construction globally, momentum must continue in various neglected areas of focus to keep progress moving forward, according to the Global Status of CCS 2014 report, released by […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/7/2014 The use of fossil fuels without carbon capture and storage technologies must be phased out by 2100, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Synthesis Report released early this week. The report looks at various scenarios or “representative concentration pathways (RCPs)” ranging from a high greenhouse gas scenario […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/7/2014 Regulations developed under the Clean Air Act, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, can be flexible and yet enforceable, as demonstrated by this week’s settlement with auto manufacturers Hyundai and Kia, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said during a press conference this […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/7/2014 While carbon-negative technologies like biological carbon capture and storage and direct air capture cannot replace emissions reduction efforts such as traditional fossil-fuel CCS, they must be used in conjunction to meet global climate goals, Noah Deich, consultant for the Virgin Earth Challenge, and Michael Ashcroft, an associate with The […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/7/2014 While the near-term benefits of reducing short-lived climate forcers (SLCFs) like methane and black carbon are not to be dismissed, they are not significant enough to justify the delay of immediate mitigation of carbon dioxide, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/7/2014 The 1.5 percent annual incremental savings suggested in building block four of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon emission standards for existing coal-fired power plants is not feasibly achievable through third party energy efficiency programs alone, Omar Siddiqui, Senior Technical Executive at the Electric Power Research Institute explained during […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/7/2014 When it comes to the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions regulations for coal-fired power plants, the newly elected Republican Congress is in a situation to pick its battles, leaders of various nongovernmental organizations said following this week’s midterm elections. Prior to taking control of the Senate, Republicans in both […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/7/2014 A more timely approach should be taken in implementing the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed carbon regulations for existing coal burning power plants in order to address some potentially significant false assumptions made by EPA in developing the rule concerning infrastructure, time constraints and reliability impacts, according to a report […]

GHG Monitor 11/7/2014 IN THE INDUSTRY Solidia Technologies will receive $752,000 from the National Energy Technology Laboratory to further research and development in the company’s carbon reducing cement and concrete processes, Solidia announced late last week. The project hopes to create an alternative type of cement that would allow for the storage of CO2 within […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/31/2014 Legal challenges from environmental groups, like the Sierra Club and its Beyond Coal Campaign, have become commonplace for carbon capture and storage projects nationwide and while these suits are generally more likely to challenge permitting as opposed to the actual CCS portion of a plant, the deployment of the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/31/2014 Total costs for the Kemper County Energy Facility have now reached $6.1 billion, according to a filing by Mississippi Power with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission this week. The latest increase, totaling $330 million, when added to previously reported overruns, results in a $418 million increase in […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/31/2014 After receiving numerous comments regarding various aspects of the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, including concerns with the 2020 interim goal “cliff” and the use of a single year of data in developing state goals, EPA released a Notice of Data Availability this week […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/31/2014 China is leading the world in the development of coal-to-chemical conversion technologies, and the United States should follow suit, Ren Xiangkun, Chairman of the Board of Beijing Baoju Energy Sci-Tech Co., said during a presentation hosted by the United State Energy Association this week. ”In China the units are […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/31/2014 Many details of the Climate and Energy Policy Framework released last week by the European Commission remain unclear at this time, especially in regard to the renewal of the New Entrants Reserve funding program. The framework calls for the New Entrants Reserve 300 funding scheme to be renewed and […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/31/2014 Positive market signals which will spur innovation and a strong economy are potential benefits of the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon regulations for existing coal-fired power plants, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said during the McCourt School LEAD Conference held at Georgetown University late last week. McCarthy called climate change a […]

GHG Monitor 10/31/2014 IN EPA The Environmental Protection Agency filed a motion late last week to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Murray Energy Corporation challenging the agency’s proposed carbon emissions regulations for existing coal-fired power plants.  In the motion, the EPA argues that because the rule has not been finalized, it is not subject to […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/24/2014 Officials in the European Commission’s Directorate-General of Climate Action, Committee on Climate Change voted last week to delay by two years the deadline for final investment decisions to be made for projects awarded funds under the Commission’s New Entrants Reserve (NER) 300 program. The funding scheme, which has been […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/24/2014 The Environmental Protection Agency pushed back this week against a new analysis prepared on behalf of a group of industry and energy organizations that projects the cost of the EPA’s proposed carbon emission standards for existing coal-fired power plants could increase energy systems costs by up to almost $500 […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/24/2014 The European Council announced this week a climate and energy policy framework for the European Union that calls for a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2030. Other targets called for in the framework include a binding target of at least 27 percent […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/24/2014 Capital SkyMine, a first-of-its-kind commercial-scale carbon capture and utilization demonstration project, opened this week outside of San Antonio, Texas. The project, owned by Skyonic, pulls flue gas off of the Capital Aggregates cement plant into the new $125 million Capitol SkyMine plant, where the CO2 is mineralized to create […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/24/2014 The government’s use of the rarely utilized section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act to develop proposed Environmental Protection Agency carbon emissions regulations transfers the responsibility of reducing the nation’s carbon emissions to the states, which will likely lead to a wide variety of mitigation actions being taken throughout […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/24/2014 A contract for the completion of a front end engineering design (FEED) study for the subsea pipeline portion of Royal Dutch Shell’s Peterhead Carbon Capture and Storage project was awarded late last week to the engineering firm, Wood Group Kenny. The contract will span six months and will include […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/17/2014 Southern Company is “committed to keeping coal viable into the future,” and that means investing in innovations such as carbon capture and storage and plant efficiency improvements to create cleaner coal electricity, Southern Company Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Greene said this week during the fall meeting of the National […]