http://about.bgov.com/blog/clinton-wyoming-and-the-epa-are-all-betting-on-carbon-capture/
[This sounds like fresh cover to protect burning of more fossil fuels
for several decades into the future, flying in the face of our knowledge
that we have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). CCU (Carbon
Capture and Use) as defined here would include EOR (Enhanced Oil
Recovery), which we know actually INCREASES the amount GHGs produced,
while qualifying for taxpayer support as a GHG reduction measure.
"Forget capture and sequestration, and start thinking about carbon
capture and use. The New York Times reports today that turning CO2 into
a recyclable, renewable resource is the next frontier for researchers,
and one that the X Prize is offering $20 million to whomever can crack
the code. “The ultimate goal of researchers in this field is to turn the
waste product of fuel-burning into new fuel,” the newspaper said. “But
developing devices that can efficiently and economically convert large
amounts of CO2 will require overcoming many hurdles, not the least of
which is all the energy required to split carbon dioxide molecules.”
Separately, Wyoming is investing $21 million on a test center near
Gillette to compete for that X Prize."
We should just skip this sham, and move directly to zero-emission
renewables - now cheaper than oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear for
electricity generation, without subsidies, without air and water
pollution, without GHG emissions, without radioactive spent fuel and
decommissioning costs.
links and images in on-line article]
Clinton, Wyoming and the EPA are all betting on carbon capture
May 3, 2016 Mark Drajem
Today’s Agenda
Hillary Clinton’s pledge to put coal “out of business” dogged her at
campaign stops in Kentucky and West Virginia yesterday, with one
out-of-work coal employee pressing her about how she could now boast of
pledging to be a friend to Appalachia. She told Bo Copley in Williamson,
West Virginia that she didn’t intend to say she would cause those job
losses: “What I said was totally out of context from what I meant
because I have been talking about helping coal country for a very long
time,” she said, according to NBC. “What I was saying is that the way
things are going now, we will continue to lose jobs. That’s what I meant
to say.”
Clinton, who has a plan to invest billions of dollars in hard-hit mining
communities, said in March, “We are going to put a lot of coal miners
and coal companies out of business.” That quip in a CNN forum has been
shared throughout Appalachia, and prompted protests of both Hillary and
Bill Clinton in the region yesterday. The anger highlights the challenge
Democrats face in November to win over working-class voters in those
once reliably Democratic states — while also supporting federal efforts
to address climate change. In coal country, those two goals are seen as
contradictory. During her events in Kentucky and West Virginia, Clinton
highlighted her plan to bring jobs to those areas, preserve the pensions
of miners — and also to support research into carbon capture and
sequestration. With that the country can “try to see how we can get coal
be a fuel that can be continued to be sold and continued to be mined.”
(Read more about Clinton’s coal-country confrontation, here.)
Voters go the polls today in Indiana, the state that consumes more coal
than all but two others, Texas and Illinois. Indiana isn’t the coal
producer that West Virginia is, but its use of the fuel has made the
Clean Power Plan and other pollution rules toxic in that state. Still,
coal miners in West Virginia or coal-heavy utilities in Indiana should
not expect the GOP to be able to resurrect coal, Bloomberg Intelligence
Analyst Rob Barnett says. Yes, both the Clean Power Plan and the
moratorium on new coal leases are vulnerable to be changed by the next
president, he said, but other rules — on mercury and cross-state
pollution, for example — aren’t going anywhere. “A Republican
presidential victory in 2016 would almost certainly produce more
coal-friendly leaders” at EPA and Interior, Barnett said. “And if an
anti-coal rule is remanded back to an agency, the next president’s
administration would probably attempt to weaken its requirements.”
Still, the challenge is, well, huge: Coal shipments by rail are down
year-to-date by a third from 2015; bringing Bo Copley’s job back is
going to require a heckuva lot more than halting a few EPA rules.
The EPA isn’t backing off its faith in carbon-capture technology. There
may be no plant using it in the U.S. and the SaskPower project in Canada
had to shutter for months to work out some bugs, but the agency
maintains there’s absolutely no reason for it to reconsider its
requirement that new coal plants capture some of their carbon emissions.
The agency turned down an appeal by utilities to scrap the CCS
requirement in its 111(b) rule, arguing the Canadian plant is doing just
fine: “The system was shut down for two weeks in June 2015 for
maintenance, and for nearly two months (most of September and all of
October) in the fall of the same year for further maintenance,” EPA said
in its decision, released yesterday. “The system has operated with high
reliability since.” Well, OK then. Whether EPA is correct in its faith
in CCS is going to be the nub of the legal arguments over this regulation.
Forget capture and sequestration, and start thinking about carbon
capture and use. The New York Times reports today that turning CO2 into
a recyclable, renewable resource is the next frontier for researchers,
and one that the X Prize is offering $20 million to whomever can crack
the code. “The ultimate goal of researchers in this field is to turn the
waste product of fuel-burning into new fuel,” the newspaper said. “But
developing devices that can efficiently and economically convert large
amounts of CO2 will require overcoming many hurdles, not the least of
which is all the energy required to split carbon dioxide molecules.”
Separately, Wyoming is investing $21 million on a test center near
Gillette to compete for that X Prize.
Oil and gas drillers survived another threat to fracking, as the
Colorado Supreme Court ruled that a local ban in Longmont and a
moratorium in Fort Collins are invalid and unenforceable. The justices
said that the local laws are preempted by state law. Following a similar
decision in Texas over a ban in Denton, the case emphasizes that states,
where industry officials often have the most sway, will remain the most
important regulator of the practice.And we’re not done with pipelines,
yet. The CSIS event with PHMSA’s Marie Therese Dominguez is at 1:30 p.m.
today at 1616 Rhode Island Ave. (We mistakenly said 11 a.m. yesterday.)
Also on tap today: The National Association of Manufacturers will
discuss a new study by IHS on the economic importance of building new
natural-gas pipelines.
Friday’s pipeline explosion in Pennsylvania melted the siding off of
one home. Also today, inside the Baker Hughes-Halliburton break up,
coal’s woes are a boon for one sector, commenting on Interior’s offshore
lease plan and the latest registrations and terminations of lobbying
contracts. And the solar industry is set to announce that one million
solar installations have been completed in the U.S.
Drajem’s Don’t Miss
The Interior Department is set discuss its report about the revenues it
earned from royalties, rents and permit fees on public lands today. The
Extractive Industries Transparency Inititiative is aimed at disclosing
the fees oil, gas and mining companies pay governments worldwide. The
report shows that the top five companies making payments to the U.S.
Treasury in 2015 were: Shell ($601 million), Peabody ($552 million),
Chevron ($539 million), AGC Soda (not disclosed) and BP America ($519
million). The report will also include voluntary disclosures by U.S.
companies of the payments they made to overseas governments.The report
discussion is being held at 2 p.m. today in the Rachel Carson Room (?!)
of the Interior Department, 1849 C St, NW. There’s also a webinar.
Quotable
“I’m not sure about Donald Trump,” said coal magnate Robert Murray, as
quoted by the New York Times.
“I just want to know how you can say you’re going to put a lot of coal
miners out of a lot of jobs and come in here and tell us how you’re
going to be our friend,” Bo Copley, who said he lost his job in the coal
industry, asked Hillary Clinton yesterday.
The Predictor
EPA is going to lose in court over its requirements that new coal plants
install carbon-capture technology.
Utilities retired 13.7 gigawatts of coal-generating capacity in 2015, as
EPA’s mercury kicked in. But that’s not the end of the shutdowns,
according to Blooomberg Intelligence analyst Bernard Chen. Over the next
five years a total of 17.6 gigawatts of coal are set to be shuttered,
equal to 6% of the installed base.
Inside the Beltway
Interior’s Five-Year Lease Plan Comments Close South Carolina State
Representative Bill Sandifer, whose state was cut from the Interior
Department’s offshore drilling plan, urged BOEM to scrap its proposal
and issue one that would provide for “early and annual Atlantic lease
sales.” Sandifer took issue with Interior citing local opposition as the
reason to yank the Atlantic. Even those left in this round are uneasy:
Drillers in Louisiana, which is the nation’s second-largest producer of
oil and natural gas, say Gulf of Mexico sales need to stay in the plan.
“Proceeding otherwise would further cripple a vital Louisiana industry
that is struggling in a fragile economy,” Stephen Waguespack, president
of The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry. Comments were due
yesterday on the Interior Department’s Draft Programmatic Environmental
Impact Statement related to its 2017-2022 proposal for offshore energy
development. Get updates on the PEIS with BGOV’s Regulation Tracker.
Advocates Take New Approach to Coal Bankruptcies As bankruptcies
continue to rock the coal sector, environmental groups are turning up
the pressure on the Interior Department to either reexamine or stop
altogether the practice of self-bonding, including making unprecedented
use of a complaint mechanism to force the government’s hand. Complaints
filed since last December have yielded at least 26 10-day notices (TDNs)
from the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement to
regulators in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico and Wyoming. The
TDNs were sent in regard to Arch Coal Inc., Alpha Natural Resources Inc.
and Peabody Energy Corp., all of which have now declared bankruptcy. The
26 TDNs are believed to be the first that address self-bonding.
Historically, most TDNs have been issued over environmental concerns,
such as damage to surface lands or streams, according to Jeremy Nichols,
climate and energy program director at WildEarth Guardians, Stephen Lee
and Tripp Baltz report.
California’s Brown Feuds With Florida’s Scott on Climate Jerry Brown
tells for Gov. Rick Scott not to “stick [his] head in the sand” on
climate change while visiting California to encourage companies to move
to Florida. “If you’re truly serious about Florida’s economic wellbeing,
it’s time to stop the silly political stunts and start doing something
about climate change,” Brown wrote.
Lobbying
A Dickens of a Time for Coal For the lawyers and lobbyists dependent on
the coal industry, it’s the best of times and the worst of times. With
the drop in coal prices causing about 50 coal company bankruptcies since
2012, that’s provided a boon for bankruptcy adviser fees. SNL Energy
reports that fees for just the top six restructurings totaled $117
million, with the law firms Jones Day, Davis Polk, Jackson Kellly and
Paul Weiss topping the list, SNL reports, citing the legal filings.
Jones Day is earning $1,075 an hour for its legal advice to Peabody, it
said. But helping those coal companies in Washington is now a dying
industry. Lobbying spending by coal companies was just $1.6 million in
the first three months of 2016, putting that spending on track to be at
its lowest level since 2004 this year. Peabody spent $330,000 on
lobbying in the first quarter, 1/37th of what it recorded as paying
Jones Day. At the peak in 2010, coal companies were spending $4.5
million a quarter on lobbying, according to federal data collected by
the Center for Responsive Politics.
Outside the Beltway
Kentucky Coal Jobs Fall to Lowest Level in 118 Years: Lexington Herald
Kentucky’s coal industry continued to hemorrhage jobs in the first three
months of 2016, hitting the lowest level in more than a century. The
number of jobs dropped by a little more than 1,500 during the quarter.
There were an estimated 6,900 people employed at coal mines as of April
1, the lowest number since 1898, according to a report released
yesterday by the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet.
Berkshire Investors Reject Climate Change Report: AP A shareholder
motion on climate change was defeated Saturday at the annual Berkshire
Hathaway meeting in Omaha, AP reported. The motion would have had the
company compile the risks to its insurance companies from climate
change. Warren Buffett has argued that climate change is a societal
problem, but not one for insurance companies.
State Probes Link Between Fracking and Quakes: Indiana Gazette
Pennsylvania environmental regulators want to determine whether a series
of minor earthquakes in the state this week were caused by nearby
fracking operations by an oil and gas company. Five tiny temblors, all
too weak to be felt by humans, took place in a 22-hour span in Lawrence
County, about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh and three-quarters of a mile
from a natural gas well owned by Houston-based Hilcorp Energy Co. No
damage was reported.
Duke Energy Subsidiary Buys Six NC Solar Farms: Charlotte Observer
Duke Energy Renewables has bought six solar farms in Eastern North
Carolina, raising its total in the state to 30 sites. Terms of the
purchase from Community Energy were not announced. Five of the farms are
already operating, with the sixth coming online in May. Together they
will have total capacity of 30 megawatts, enough energy to supply about
6,000 homes. Output from the solar projects is being sold to Dominion NC
Power under 15-year agreements.
Electricity and Renewables
Opower Surges On Oracle Bid Opower Inc. rose the most on record after
Oracle Corp. agreed to pay a 30 percent premium to buy the provider of
cloud-computing services to utilities. Oracle offered $10.30 a share,
valuing Opower at about $532 million. Shares in the company rose 30
percent to $10.29 at the close in New York, the biggest gain since its
initial public offering in April 2014. Before today, the shares had
declined 25 percent this year.
Oil, Gas and Coal
Market Wrap: Oil traded near $45 a barrel before weekly U.S. government
data forecast to show rising stockpiles kept crude supplies at the
highest level in more than eight decades. West Texas Intermediate for
June delivery climbed as much as 57 cents to $45.35 a barrel on the New
York Mercantile Exchange and was at $45.33 at 7:56 a.m. London time.
Natural gas for June delivery rose as much as 1% to $2.063/mmBtu on the
Nymex, and was trading at $2.059 by 7:52am London time.
Halliburton CEO Was ’Absolutely Confident’ in Failed Baker Deal
Halliburton Co. Chief Executive Officer Dave Lesar wanted Baker Hughes
Inc. bad. Months after oil prices began to crash in 2014, Halliburton’s
62-year-old leader saw the $35 billion takeover of its rival as the best
path to survival. The largest deal in his company’s history meant so
much to him that he threatened to go hostile after Baker Hughes balked
at the price and said the transaction wouldn’t survive antitrust review.
Lesar was so “absolutely confident” he could complete the deal, he
offered to pay a 10 percent fee if it wasn’t consummated. With the deal
now scrapped because of government objections, that confidence means
that Halliburton will pay a $3.5 billion termination charge, the second
largest in history after AT&T Inc.’s payment to Deutsche Telekom AG in
2011. Despite Lesar’s driving ambition to expand, investors cheered the
end of the transaction.
Cheniere Says LNG Plant Ready to Go Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Sabine Pass
terminal, the first to send U.S. shale natural gas abroad, is ready to
operate commercially, paving the way for more cargoes to leave the
nation. Cheniere asked U.S. regulators for approval on Friday to place
the first gas liquefaction plant, known as Train 1, at the Louisiana
terminal into commercial service after testing confirmed it can be
operated “safely and reliably,” a filing shows. The company began
testing equipment at the plant last fall and has shipped seven cargoes
of liquefied natural gas abroad since late February as part of the
commissioning process.
FERC Clears Atlantic Bridge Pipeline The impact of the Spectra Energy
project would not significantly affect environment if mitigating
measures are used, FERC said in its environmental review. “The impacts
associated with this Project can be mitigated to support a finding of no
significant impact,” it said. The project would bring natural gas from
Marcellus to New England and Maritime provinces of Canada.
The Impact of “Keep it in the Ground” Ending new leasing for coal, oil
and natural gas on federal lands and waters would lead to a steady
decline in coal production, and a slower drop for oil and gas, according
to a report out today from the Stockholm Environment Institute.
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