Publications: GHG Reduction Technologies Monitor

GHG Monitor 11/13/2015 IN INDUSTRY Mississippi Power, developer of the Kemper County Energy Facility carbon capture and storage project, has again had its credit rating downgraded. Moody’s Investors Service announced late last week that the company has been downgraded from Baa2 to Baa3. "The downgrade of Mississippi Power’s ratings is prompted by the election of […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/6/2015 The Mississippi Supreme Court late last week denied a request by a local businessman to overturn an August emergency rate increase for Mississippi Power. The temporary 18 percent rate hike was approved by the Mississippi Public Service Commission on Aug. 13 and was immediately challenged in the form of […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/6/2015 It will be “impossible” to develop an agreement at next month’s 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that will deliver on the international goal of limiting global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres said […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/6/2015 The ongoing march to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit continued this week as states and interest groups filed more challenges to the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for new and existing coal-fired power plants. The final rules, developed under Sections 111(b) […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/6/2015 SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture and storage project is back up and running this week after a planned outage, company CEO Mike Marsh told GHG Monitor this week by email. “Our two-month scheduled maintenance ended this week and we’re back online, capturing carbon dioxide. We’re working on […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/6/2015 A total of 22 large-scale carbon capture and storage projects are projected to be operational in worldwide by 2020, exceeding the expectations of the Global CCS Institute, CEO Brad Page told press this week in advance of the launch of the organization’s 2015 Global Status of CCS report. “[In […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/6/2015 Republican members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee this week expressed displeasure with the administration’s climate policy during a roundtable discussion with visiting members of the European Parliament. Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) explained Thursday to the European delegation that it is important to Republicans […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/6/2015 The ambitions set out by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) Low Carbon Technology Partnerships initiative (LCTPi), if realized, could deliver 65 percent of the total carbon emissions reduction needed to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, according to a new report released by the […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/6/2015 Two Congressional Review Act resolutions introduced by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) against the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions regulations for new and existing coal-fired power plants were reported out of the House Energy and Commerce Energy and Power Subcommittee this week on a party-line vote. The markup served as […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/6/2015 Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) this week lashed out again against the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently finalized carbon emissions standards for new and existing coal-fired power plants, this time in local media. “These regulations force coal-fired plants to meet emissions standards which simply can’t be achieved, at least not now, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/6/2015 Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) this week introduced legislation that would halt the extraction of fossil fuels from federal lands. The “Keep it in the Ground” bill would serve three main purposes: to stop new and end nonproducing coal, oil, gas, oil shale, and tar sands leases on all federal […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 11/6/2015 Current coal-fired power plant trends would lead to the United States meeting the carbon emissions reduction goal laid out in the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants five years ahead of schedule, according to a new report from the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/30/2015 In penning its carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, the Environmental Protection Agency exceeded its authority, according to a coalition of 16 industry groups led by the United States Chamber of Commerce. “[We are concerned] about how EPA has actually exerted its authority in this rulemaking process. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/30/2015 Lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced Congressional Review Act resolutions early this week to fight the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently finalized carbon emissions standards for new and existing coal-fired power plants. The four resolutions, one for each of the two rules in the House and Senate, are unlikely […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/30/2015 Mississippi Power this week announced another cost estimate increase, this time totaling $110 million, for the Kemper County Energy Facility, a new-build post-combustion carbon capture and storage project under development near Meridian, Miss. Such overages are not new to Mississippi Power, a subsidy of Southern Co.: The project’s costs […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/30/2015 An analysis of all Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has confirmed that they are not enough to limit global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UNFCCC, announced at a press conference Friday […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/30/2015 In the latest draft text of the global climate agreement being negotiated by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, negotiators have left some key issues to be dealt with at the last opportunity, in Paris. The agreement is hoped to be finalized at the 21st Conference of […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/30/2015 A $12 million (CAD) penalty paid to Alberta-based Cenovus for the failure of Saskatchewan-based SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Unit 3 carbon capture and storage project to provide the oil company with an agreed-upon amount of CO2 in 2014 has the province’s New Democratic Party (NDP) up in arms. The NDP, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/30/2015 North Dakota has filed its own suit against the Environmental Protect Agency’s recently finalized carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, setting itself apart from a coalition of 24 other states. While this move is merely ceremonial, as all suits against the rule at this time have been […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/30/2015 After being published in the Federal Register on Oct. 23, the comment period for the Environmental Protection Agency’s draft federal implementation plan (FIP) for the recently finalized carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, the Clean Power Plan (CPP), has opened. Under the CPP, states are required to […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/30/2015 The Teesside Collective, a planned industrial carbon capture and storage network in the United Kingdom’s most carbon-intensive area, has picked up a new partner to take the place of founding member Sahaviriya Steel Industries’ (SSI) Redcar Steelworks, which shut down earlier this month. Industrial energy and water services provider […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/30/2015 Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 37 states decreased from 2000-2013, according to a report released this week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). On the other end of the spectrum, 13 states — Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/30/2015 Decarbonizing the United Kingdom’s energy sector will be a complex process with many variables, including the commercialization of carbon capture and storage technology, according to a report by the Royal Academy of Engineering released this week. “What is required now is a combination of known technologies, scaled up to […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/23/2015 John Kasich, governor of Ohio and Republican presidential candidate, late last week released an energy plan calling for, among other actions, the repeal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently finalized regulations on carbon emissions. The regulation targeted is the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, which regulates carbon emissions from existing […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/23/2015 Carbon capture and storage holds the potential to help the United States meet its environmental, economic and national security goals, but current policy does not adequately address the status and risks involved with the technology, according to a report released late last week by the Brookings Institution. “Fundamentally, current […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/23/2015 Following a roundtable at the White House, President Barack Obama announced this week that a total of 81 companies have signed the administration’s American Business Act on Climate Pledge. In signing the pledge, these businesses are “voicing support for a strong Paris outcome … demonstrating an ongoing commitment to […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/23/2015 An analysis of climate pledges made by more than 150 of the world’s countries has revealed that if they are met the increase of global energy-related emissions would slow to a “relative crawl” of around .5 percent per year by 2030, according to a report released this week by […]