Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
9/25/2015
A group of Senate Democrats led by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) this week released an energy bill that includes a provision that would add carbon utilization and storage efforts to a section of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct) that prioritizes fossil energy research and development efforts within the Department of Energy.
The new bill, dubbed the American Energy Innovation Act of 2015, would insert “improving the conversion, use, and storage of carbon dioxide produced from fossil fuels” into section 961 of the EPAct.
That section calls on DOE to “carry out research, development, demonstration, and commercial application programs in fossil energy, including activities under this subtitle, with the goal of improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and environmental performance of fossil energy production, upgrading, conversion, and consumption.”
The EPAct cites several objectives for this research and development, including increasing fossil energy conversion efficiency, decreasing the cost of fossil energy production, and reducing the environmental impact of fossil energy-related activities.
DOE did not respond to several requests for comment on the bill this week, and it remains unknown what, if any, effect the new language would have on the department’s fossil energy research efforts.
