Feds’ $2.4B to ‘stimulate’ carbon capture projects


On Thursday, we reported in For carbon sequestration, it’s test time on a major project designed to test the commercial viability of carbon sequestration technology (more popularly known as ‘carbon capture and storage’).

The technology, which removes CO2, a major greenhouse gas, from coal-burning power plants and injects it into deep underground rock sediments, holds great promise for the economies of coal-producing states like Pennsylvania and for utilities with coal plants that could be retrofitted with the technology to meet tougher greenhouse emission standards.

On Friday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, speaking before
the National Coal Council, announced that $2.4 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be used to expand and accelerate the commercial deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology.

Here’s a news release from the Energy Department on the stimulus-project announcement:

“The funding is part of the Obama Administration’s ongoing effort to develop technologies to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas and contributor to global climate change, into the atmosphere while creating new jobs.

“To prevent the worst effects of climate change, we must accelerate our efforts to capture and store carbon in a safe and cost-effective way. This funding will both create jobs now and help position the United States to lead the world in CCS technologies, which will be in increasing demand in the years ahead,” said Secretary Steven Chu.

“The Department is posting Notices of Intent to issue this funding, supporting the following initiatives:

“Clean Coal Power Initiative: $800 million will be used to expand DOE’s Clean Coal Power Initiative, which provides government co-financing for new coal technologies that can help utilities cut sulfur, nitrogen and mercury pollutants from power plants. The new funding will allow researchers broader CCS commercial-scale experience by expanding the range of technologies, applications, fuels, and geologic formations that are tested.

“Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage: $1.52 billion will be used for a two-part competitive solicitation for large-scale CCS from industrial sources. The industrial sources include, but are not limited to, cement plants, chemical plants, refineries, steel and aluminum plants, manufacturing facilities, and petroleum coke-fired and other power plants.

“The second part of the solicitation will include innovative concepts for beneficial CO2 reuse (CO2 mineralization, algae production, etc.) and CO2 capture from the atmosphere. In addition, two existing industrial and innovative reuse projects, previously selected via competitive solicitations, will be expanded to accelerate scale-up and field testing:

“Ramgen Modification ($20 million): funding will allow the industrial-sized scale-up and testing of an existing advanced CO2 compression project with the objective of reducing time to commercialization, technology risk, and cost. Work on this project will be done in Bellevue, WA.

“Arizona Public Services Modification ($70.6 million): funding will permit the existing algae-based carbon mitigation project to expand testing with a coal-based gasification system. The goal is to produce fuels from domestic resources while reducing atmospheric CO2 emissions. The overall process will minimize production of carbon dioxide in the gasification process to produce a substitute natural gas (SNG) from coal. The host facility for this project is the Cholla Power Plant located in Holbrook, AZ.

“Geologic Sequestration Site Characterization: $50 million will fund a competitive solicitation to characterize a minimum of 10 geologic formations throughout the United States. Projects will be required to complement and build upon the existing characterization base created by DOE’s Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships, looking at broadening the range and extent of geologic basins that have been studied to date. The goal of this effort is to accelerate the determination of potential geologic storage sites.

“Geologic Sequestration Training and Research: $20 million will be used to educate and train a future generation of geologists, scientists, and engineers with skills and competencies in geology, geophysics, geomechanics, geochemistry and reservoir engineering disciplines needed to staff a broad national CCS program. This program will emphasize advancing educational opportunities across a broad range of minority colleges and universities and will use DOE’s University Coal Research Program as the model for implementing the program. “

Our most recent posts:
For carbon sequestration, it’s test time
USGS report drills into Marcellus Shale concerns
Thousands of climate lobbyists besiege Congress
Alert: NJ’s Licensed Site Professional bill signed
Suburbs still growing but region’s cities are too

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Week’s top environmental news in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and beyond: May 11-15


Below are just a few of the environmental and political news stories for New Jersey, Pennsylvania and beyond that appeared in EnviroPolitics during the week of May 11-15, 2009.

New Jersey Politics

Corzine cuts $150 million more from budget The governor plans several additional steps to close the rest of the $1.2 billion budget gap for the fiscal year Inquirer Bergen Record

Little Delaware suddenly a threat to Atlantic City Delaware’s modest casino industry is about to become a lot more like Atlantic City’s by introducing table games AC Press

GOP candidates for governor debate Republican gubernatorial candidates Christopher J. Christie and Steve Lonegan clashed yesterday over taxes, property-tax rebates, and the question of who would truly rein in state spending in the first formal debate of their party’s primary Inquirer Star-Ledger

Christie remembered for bitter conflicts In 1994, the GOP freeholder primary was so negative that Chris Christie’s rivals filed defamation lawsuits against him. Now, seeking the Republican nomination for governor, he says he’s older and wiser Bergen Record

Funding for defunct food-in-space program questioned Records show much of program’s money paid the salaries of two people — one with political connections and the other a woman who has been dead two years Star-Ledger Bergen Record

New Jersey Environment

PSE&G agrees to pay part of Highlands’ legal costs The energy company agrees to pay some of the legal costs for towns opposing the utility’s massive upgrade of power lines known as the Susquehanna-Roseland project Bergen Record

Utility looks to run gas pipeline through Highlands Another big utility has come to the state with a proposed project that would tear through part of the state’s Highlands region. Tennessee Gas Pipeline wants to dig a 16-mile underground extension through Vernon, W. Milford and Ringwood Star-Ledger

Enviro group sues to overturn housing approval The New Jersey Highlands Coalition says it is suing the state Department of Environmental Protection to block sewer service for the proposed, 185-unit Huntington Knolls housing development in Holland Township, Sussex County Express-Times

$600 million open space bond may go to voters NJ voters may again have the chance to vote on a bond that could help preserve historic sites and open space throughout Bergen and Passaic counties as well as the rest of the state Bergen Record

‘Seven minutes to judgment’ stirs controversy The proposal has caused an unusual split among New Jersey environmental activists NJ Newsroom

Pennsylvania Environment

PUC approves use of chloramines Pennsylvania American Water received approval from the state Public Utility Commission on Thursday to use the disinfectant chloramine at its West Shore water treatment plants The Sentinel

State rejects TVA coal ash Coal ash recovered from a major spill last December at a Tennessee power plant is too contaminated for use in reclaimed coal mines, PA officials say Centre Daily Times

PPL picks route for West End power line A new power line will snake its way through Chestnut hill Township after PPL settled on the route Pocono Record
> PUC: Omission of PPL figures was an oversight Pocono Record

Marcellus Shale plant opens A plant built to process natural gas drawn from the Marcellus Shale formation in southwestern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia is up and running Times-Tribune

Rendell plan to tax Marcellus shale gas in doubt The red-hot drilling boom set off two years ago by the discovery of a massive natural-gas field more than a mile below Pennsylvania soil has clicked back to a low simmer Inquirer

Leasing a path to solar power Pennsylvania will start issuing rebate checks in July to help homeowners offset the cost of installing solar-powered energy systems, but don’t expect an immediate stampede to plug into the sun Inquirer

Pennsylvania Politics

Convicted former Sen. Fumo allowed to keep property Convicted former state Sen. Vincent Fumo won’t have to forfeit his Philadelphia mansion to the government in the wake of his sweeping corruption case Patriot News

Stupidity is Philly judge’s defense Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Willis W. Berry demonstrated “stupidity” by running a real estate business out of his chambers, but it did not rise to the level that the state should strip him of his robe, his attorney argues Inquirer

Outsider no more, Toomey shoring up status in GOP Bob Asher has spent the past five days telling fellow Republicans what you’d expect from a GOP national committeeman: The state party has good candidates for statewide office in 2010. What’s surprising, though, is who he includes in the mix Morning Call

Philadelphia Mayor and Council reach an accord on tax rise Dropping his push for a steep but temporary two-year increase in property taxes, Mayor Nutter yesterday agreed to back City Council’s proposal for a five-year sales-tax increase to help close Philadelphia’s $1.4 billion budget deficit Inquirer

New York/Nation/World

Gov. Paterson’s solar power plan envisions 50,000 jobs Gov. David A. Paterson will announce today that the state’s two power authorities will purchase up to 150 megawatts of solar power through a program aiming to make the state the nation’s second-biggest solar power producer Buffalo News

Expansion of New York bottle-deposit law faces delay Gov. David Paterson and state lawmakers are seeking to delay the expansion of the state-s bottle-de posit law by at least a month over concerns that bottlers can’t quickly implement the new changes Ithaca Journal

Senator: Study water for drugs U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called Tuesday for a study to assess potential risks of trace levels of medications that have been found in drinking water supplies across the country Times Union

Lobbyists push for emissions credits Utilities, steelmakers and oil industry lobbyists have tried to ease the pain of President Obama’s push to curb global warming, and they’ve gotten an early return on the millions spent influencing Congress AP

Costly Superfund dredging set for Hudson River People look funny at David Mathis when he takes a dip off his dock in the Hudson River. Health officials have long warned people not to eat fish caught from this stretch south of the Adirondacks and swimming is unthinkable to many Poughkeepsie Journal

Our most recent posts:
For carbon sequestration, it’s test time
USGS report drills into Marcellus Shale concerns
Thousands of climate lobbyists besiege Congress
Alert: NJ’s Licensed Site Professional bill signed
Suburbs still growing but region’s cities are too

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Week’s top environmental news in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and beyond: May 11-15 Read More »

EPA’s Lisa Jackson on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show

Check out EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s short but sweet
May 14 interview with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show.

[Thanks to Jason Springer of Blue Jersey for bringing it to the attention of his readers and now, you, too]

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart M – Th 11p / 10c
Lisa P. Jackson
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Economic Crisis Political Humor

Our most recent posts:
For carbon sequestration, it’s test time
USGS report drills into Marcellus Shale concerns
Thousands of climate lobbyists besiege Congress
Alert: NJ’s Licensed Site Professional bill signed
Suburbs still growing but region’s cities are too

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For carbon sequestration, it’s test time


It works in laboratory bench-scale tests, but the viability of capturing carbon emissions on a large, commercial scale and storing them underground is still unproven.

American Electric Power hopes to prove that it an be done with a test that could last three years at its Mountaineer Plant in New Haven,
West Virginia.

The project expects to capture 200,000 metric tons of CO2 per year and inject it for geological storage in deep saline aquifers at the site. If the 20-mega watt trial proves successful, the company will implement the same technology, in 2010, in a ramped-up 200-megawatt project at another plant in Oklahoma.

The ultimate outcome of the tests holds great significance for the coal industry in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Carbon dioxide (CO2), a major greenhouse gas, is generated in the process of burning coal to produce electricity. It is the prime reason why environmentalists nationwide oppose permit renewals for existing coal-fueled power plants and oppose the construction of new plants which rely on coal as their fuel source.

In a recent report, the state of Pennsylvania identified four “potential geologic sequestration reservoirs in western and north-central Pennsylvania.” Each of the locations, the report says, meets the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2,500-foot depth criteria for permanent sequestration of CO2.

In New Jersey, a company recently announced plans to seek approval for 500 megawatt, coal-fueled facility using a 100-mile, underground pipeline to push as much as 10 million tons of CO2 annually — emissions from the new plant and eventually neighboring industrial operations — to a point 70 miles off the coast and about 2,200 yards beneath the Atlantic Ocean.

Like to share your views on the subject? Use the comment box below or click on the tiny ‘comments’ line. You can remain anonymous, if you prefer. We publish all reader opinions offered
in good taste.

Related environmental news:
Carbon Capture Test
RWE to join AEP in validation of carbon capture technology
‘Carbon Sequestration’ coming to NJ & PA?
A good old New Jersey environmental controversy

Our most recent posts:
USGS report drills into Marcellus Shale concerns
Thousands of climate lobbyists besiege Congress
Alert: NJ’s Licensed Site Professional bill signed
Suburbs still growing but region’s cities are too

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USGS report drills into Marcellus Shale concerns

The “gold-rush” pace set by energy companies purchasing property rights and drilling for natural gas in areas of Pennsylvania New York atop the Marcellus Shale formation slowed when the economy hit the brakes.

Since the drilling fever broke, more attention has been paid to the potential environmental consequences of the high-pressure drilling methods used to extract natural gas from underground layers of shale.

A new fact sheet published by The United States Geological Survey addresses what many consider to be the number one environmental challenge facing the development of the Marcellus Shale – water supply protection.

It identifies the three important concerns related to Marcellus Shale gas production as:

• supplying water for well construction without impacting local water resources,

• avoiding degradation of small watersheds and streams as substantial amounts of heavy equipment and supplies are moved around on rural roads, and

• determining the proper methods for the safe disposal of the large quantities of potentially contaminated fluids recovered from the wells.

The document discusses each of the three concerns in some detail and concludes:

“While the technology of drilling directional boreholes, and the use of sophisticated hydraulic fracturing processes to extract gas resources from tight rock have improved over the past few decades, the knowledge of how this extraction might affect water resources has not kept pace. Agencies that manage and protect water resources could benefit from a better understanding of the impacts that drilling and stimulating Marcellus Shale wells might have on water supplies, and a clearer idea of the options for wastewater disposal.

You’ll find a copy of the fact sheet at: Marcellus Shale Water Resources and Natural Gas Production

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Thousands of climate lobbyists besiege Congress

Just six years ago, 70 percent of the interests weighing in on climate issues in the nations capital were energy companies and manufacturers. But by 2008, those sectors made up only 45 percent of the total, despite their strong growth, because so many new interests had joined in the fray.

Today, more than 770 companies and organizations utilize some 2,340 lobbyists to work on climate change and spent at least $90 million lobbying in 2008.

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity — a group of 48 companies — topped the list of those solely focused on the issue, spending $9.95 million.

These are just a few of the highlights in an illuminating new report, The Climate Change Lobby, published by the Center for Public Integrity.

The Obama Administration’s desire to shift the nation’s energy economy from one dominated by fossil-fuel interests to one accommodating energy alternatives like, wind, wave solar and biomass, has resulted in an interesting shift in lobbying alliances.

The Center reports that while:

” The nation’s largest and most powerful industry groups–the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers–are now leading voices against climate action, “other industry coalitions, such as the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, want to see Congress act on greenhouse gases–as long as lawmakers take care to minimize their costs.

“Others, like the numerous alternative energy companies, are pursuing opportunities that would be available as a result of a new commitment to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. And then there are the Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase, as well as private equity firms and new financial players, which would buy and sell emissions “permits’ under a proposed “cap-and-trade” system favored by most pro-climate politicians, including Obama. Finally, there are the cities, public transit agencies, universities, and others sleeking piece of the pie–the revenue that a climate program would generate when power plants, oil companies, and others have to buy federal permits to continue emitting carbon dioxide.”

We recommend that you read the report and then use the comment block or “comments” line below to share your thoughts with your fellow EnviroPolitics Blog readers.

Related:
The ‘Clean-Coal’ Lobbying Blitz
They’ve brought coal above ground. They’ve put the black rock on billboards and featured it in full-page ads. They seem to be everywhere in Washington. Who are those guys?

The Climate Lobbyists
A sampling of climate ‘power players’

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