Publications: GHG Reduction Technologies Monitor

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/23/2015 The floodgates have opened. The Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for new and existing coal-fired power plants appeared in the Federal Register on Friday, opening the door for legal challenges to the rules. The final rules, developed under Sections 111(b) and 111(d) of the Clean Air Act, were […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/23/2015 As the upcoming negotiations toward a post-Kyoto climate agreement near, Republican lawmakers continue to push the administration to bring the agreement before the Senate for consultation and potential ratification. However, the administration argues, if the agreement is not legally-binding there is no precedent for them to do so and […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/23/2015 The Environmental Protection Agency’s inclusion of ancillary or co-benefits in impact analyses for its regulations artificially inflates the estimated benefits of agency rules, Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management, and Regulatory Oversight charged at a hearing this week. “The EPA has […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/23/2015 The use of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in the United Kingdom’s North Sea holds the promise of enabling the obtainment of up to 500 million additional barrels of otherwise unrecoverable oil. However, to harness this opportunity, action must be taken now to create a CO2-EOR industry, according to a […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/23/2015 The Chief Executive Officers of 10 of the world’s oil and gas companies representing the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) late last week pledged to work toward the international goal of limiting global temperature rise to 2-degrees Celsius. “Our shared ambition is for a 2°C future. It is […]

GHG Monitor 10/23/2015 IN INDUSTRY Anthony Wilson has been named president of Southern Company subsidy Mississippi Power, the company announced this week. Wilson has been involved with Mississippi Power and fellow Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power since 1984. As of Jan. 1, 2016, Wilson will step in as CEO of Mississippi Power, relieving current Chairman […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/16/2015 Basin Electric Power Cooperative’s Dry Fork Station near Gillette, Wyo., will be the site of the state’s carbon utilization Integrated Test Center (ITC), Gov. Matt Mead announced late last week. “We lead the nation in coal production. This facility allows us to provide the same leadership in research and […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/16/2015 The place for fossil energy in the United States’ future energy mix was questioned during this week’s Democratic presidential debate, during which all but one candidate expressed a need to transition away from the carbon-heavy fuel source, though they differed on the preferred path to that end. To no […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/16/2015 A significant weakness of the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants, the Clean Power Plan (CPP), may be found in an entirely different regulation, a former senior agency official said this week. The CPP was developed under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/16/2015 Southern Company Services, a subsidiary of Southern Co., this week announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) to jointly explore clean coal and carbon capture and storage technologies. "This MOU brings together two respected energy companies with the proven ability to deliver […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/16/2015 A group of 14 large corporations, including several involved in the carbon capture, utilization, and storage industry, this week issued a statement in support of a strong climate agreement at the upcoming global negotiations in Paris. “We support the aim of a more balanced and durable multilateral framework guiding […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/16/2015 Alberta-Based Carbon Engineering is scheduled to launch a pilot plant demonstrating its direct air capture technology today outside of Squamish, British Columbia The $9 million facility is designed to capture 1 ton of CO2 per day. “Everyone at Carbon Engineering is extremely excited about the plant coming together and […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/16/2015 A consortium led by Saudi Arabia-based ACWA Power and China-based Harbin Electric has been selected as the preferred bidder for the first phase of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority’s (DEWA) 1,200-megawatt Hassyan Clean Coal Power Plant, DEWA Managing Director and CEO Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer announced this week. […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/16/2015 Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s (R-W.Va.) Affordable Reliable Energy Now Act (ARENA) would not stop the Environmental Protection Agency from addressing carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, according to a Congressional Budget Office report released Oct. 8. The bill, which was introduced in May and is now in committee, contains […]

GHG Monitor 10/16/2015 IN INDUSTRY Former Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), in her new position as a senior policy adviser with lobbying firm Van Ness Feldman, has joined the lobbying team for the FutureGen Alliance, according to a recently discovered lobbying disclosure form submitted to the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/9/2015 Geoscientists and engineers specializing in carbon storage this week called for the consideration of carbon capture and storage as a mitigation option during the climate agreement negotiations to take place in Paris in December. In an Oct. 8 letter sent to Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the United Nations […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/9/2015 Researchers at the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre have discovered a new process by which they can “fingerprint” carbon stored underground to monitor the movement of the plumes, according to a new paper published this week in International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control. The “fingerprint” is developed by measuring […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/9/2015 One year after officially coming online, SaskPower’s Boundary Dam Unit 3 remains the world’s first and only commercial-scale post-combustion coal-fired carbon capture and storage project. The last year has been one of expanding knowledge, and SaskPower is happy to share the lessons it has learned, SaskPower CEO Mike Marsh […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/9/2015 The Environmental Protection Agency’s recently finalized carbon emissions standard for existing coal-fired power plants and the associated proposed federal implementation plan are no more than a backdoor way for the agency to institute a cap and trade program, Republican members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Energy […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/9/2015 The United States ranks among the best countries in the world in the development of a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework for handling carbon capture and storage (CSS) activities, according to a recently released analysis by the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute. Five countries –  the U.S., Canada, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/9/2015 The United States needs for the global climate agreement hoped to be struck at the end of the year to be nonbinding because it will not be ratified by the Senate. Because of this, other countries have built-in leverage going into the negotiations, Lisa DeMarco, a partner at Zizzo […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/9/2015 The United Kingdom’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) late last week awarded £1.7 million to carbon capture and storage projects as part of phase four of the government’s energy entrepreneurs fund. “The funding will support the development and demonstration of state of the art CCS technologies to […]

GHG Monitor 10/9/2015 ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT Hoesung Lee has been elected chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC announced this week. Lee, a South Korean professor in the economics of climate change, won the election 78-56 in a run-off with Jean-Pascal van Ypersele. “I am honoured and grateful that the Panel […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/2/2015 Refusing to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for existing coal-fired power plants is nothing more than a cry for attention by states, Bill Becker, executive director of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA), said this week. Under the rule, the Clean Power Plan, […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/2/2015 Congress this week passed a continuing resolution that will fund the federal government through Dec. 11 at fiscal 2015 enacted levels and avoids a government shutdown. The CR gives Congress an additional 10 weeks to work toward a budget solution, but with uncertainty in the House following Speaker John […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/2/2015 Mississippi Power, a subsidy of Southern Co., this week reported an additional $15 million in cost overages at the Kemper County Energy Facility in its monthly status report to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The report attributes the extra $15 million in the total estimated cost to “additional […]

Abby L. Harvey GHG Monitor 10/2/2015 Rounding out the top three carbon emitters in the world, India this week submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, months after the submissions from the top emitters, the United States and China. In its INDC, India committed to reducing the […]