WRAP UP

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
7/26/13

IN CONGRESS

A group of nearly two-dozen lawmakers from coal states sent a letter to President Barack Obama this week calling on him to abandon plans to implement carbon standards for new and existing power plants. The lawmakers—who notably include House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) and Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who is running for West Virginia’s vacant Senate seat next year—said the rules would increase unemployment and hurt the economy of coal states while harming national security. “Circumventing the will of Congress, which has repeatedly voted against carbon regulations, taxes and cap-and-trade, [Obama’s climate plan] directs EPA to take the unprecedented step of imposing an energy tax by regulatory fiat,” the lawmakers wrote. “This catch-all proposal would unfairly penalize existing facilities and almost certainly preclude the construction of new coal-fired plants.” The House lawmakers said that in addition to the announced EPA regulations, recent mining permit delays and proposed cuts to the Department of Energy’s Fossil Energy R&D budget showcased what they said is the Obama Administration’s “war on coal.”

IN THE WHITE HOUSE

President Barack Obama this week nominated former Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee staff director Bob Simon to serve as Associate Director for Energy and Environment at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Simon has served as a consultant in the Office of Science and Technology Policy since June, and previously served as a senior advisor in the Department of Energy’s Office of Science. From 1999 to 2012, Simon directed the Democratic staff of Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and held the position of the committee’s Staff Director from 2007 to 2012. Simon’s other positions have included serving as Principal Deputy Director of the Office of Energy Research at DOE from 1991 to 1993; and as Executive Director of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board from 1990 to 1992.

IN DOE

The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office will be holding three public meetings on a recent draft solicitation for a batch of new loan guarantees for advanced fossil energy projects, according to a notice published in this week’s Federal Register. The three meetings will be held on July 31, Aug. 14 and Aug. 27 at DOE headquarters, the notice says. President Obama announced the $8 billion in loan guarantee authority as part of his sweeping climate plan last month. DOE released the draft solicitation earlier this month and said that “innovative and advanced fossil energy projects and facilities that substantially reduce greenhouse gas and other air pollution,” including carbon capture and storage, chemical looping and advanced coal technologies, were eligible for the loan guarantees. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told reporters July 2 that DOE plans to issue a final solicitation by this fall.

IN EPA

Janet McCabe has been named acting Assistant Administrator for Air and Radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency, replacing Gina McCarthy who was confirmed by the Senate last week as the Agency’s head. McCabe had most recently served as McCarthy’s deputy within the Office of Air and Radiation, and will now take a more integral role in developing carbon standards for new and existing power plants until a successor can be nominated and confirmed.

ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT

The European Investment Bank said this week that it would phase out funding for unmitigated coal-fired power plants. The European Union’s financing arm, however, will not entirely cut financing for coal plants. Instead, the EIB announced that it has instituted an emissions performance standard, and could invest in plants if they emit less than the equivalent of about 1,200 lbs of CO2 per MWh, slightly higher than the emissions intensity of an unmitigated natural gas plant. The standard can be met with carbon capture and storage technology, as well as biomass co-firing and combined heat and power systems. The announcement came a week after the World Bank announced that it would sharply limit coal plant financing abroad.

IN THE INDUSTRY

The French technology developer Alstom and United Conveyor Corp., a company that specializes in producing dry sorbent injection systems for power plants, announced a new agreement this week to jointly provide new emissions control systems for coal plants in North America and Europe. “These systems would combine the two companies’ respective expertise in air quality control systems and dry sorbent injection, thereby simplifying customer efforts to comply with stringent emission control regulations,” Alstom said in a press release. Alstom said the systems would be ideal for power generation projects that require dry sorbent injection systems to limit the emissions of SO2, SO3 and HCl, as well as other air quality control technologies like electrostatic precipitators, fabric filters, selective catalytic reduction units and wet or dry scrubbers to remove other pollutants.