[LINK] clean coal

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Ritter, fellow governors ask Obama to support 'clean coal' technologies
Denver Business Journal

 http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/02/16/daily69.html


Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and his fellow governors in Utah and Wyoming 
Sunday called on President Barack Obama to support speedy development 
of "clean coal" technology.

"Finding a way to use our nation’s rich supplies of coal in a manner that 
avoids emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants is absolutely 
vital to the success of any national effort to reduce emissions, promote 
national security and create jobs," the three governors wrote in a letter 
to Obama.

"Our nation must also take the lead in developing truly clean-coal 
technologies that can be adopted by rapidly industrializing nations such 
as China and India," the letter said.

The letter, addressed to Obama, was delivered Sunday to Carol Browner, 
assistant to the president on energy and climate change, and to Energy 
Secretary Steven Chu at the National Governors’ Association annual winter 
meeting in Washington.

The governors said they also will send the letter to their states' 
representatives in Congress.

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Here is the text of Sunday's letter as provided by Ritter's office:

The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President:

Finding a way to use our Nation’s rich supplies of coal in a manner that 
avoids emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants is absolutely 
vital to the success of any national effort to reduce emissions, promote 
national security and create jobs. Our Nation must also take the lead in 
developing truly clean-coal technologies that can be adopted by rapidly 
industrializing nations such as China and India.

It is with these goals firmly in mind that we report that our three 
states and an informal consortium of other stakeholders are prepared to 
move rapidly to develop new and retrofit clean coal demonstration 
projects that incorporate carbon capture and sequestration. However, it 
is clear to us that taking technology from the laboratory bench to 
commercial-scale demonstration plants simply will not occur without a 
significant federal commitment of resources. Therefore, we are writing to 
urge you to thoroughly consider significant funding for federal-state-
private efforts to construct new and retrofit demonstration clean coal 
facilities that use western coals and are capable of operating at 
altitude.

We envision these will be new and retrofit utility-scale clean coal 
projects that are: (1) sited in existing infrastructure; (2) utilize CO2 
for enhanced oil/gas recovery and/or use a deep saline aquifer or other 
geologic storage; (3) provide for federal statutory streamlining of DOE 
funding and required state rate recovery to incentivize workable, long-
term project economics; (4) provide for proper management of short-and 
long-term liability; and (5) facilitate proper environmental permitting 
to protect public health and the environment. These projects will prove 
out utility scale application of carbon capture and sequestration 
strategies that will not only ensure that the country can meet its 
objectives of maintaining a strong electricity-based economy, but will 
also allow existing or new coal generation facilities to provide low 
cost, clean energy.

This will be a critical step toward enabling the country to meet its 
energy demand with an energy portfolio that includes clean fossil fuel 
resources, while also ensuring that energy costs are contained and the 
local communities dependent on the extraction of these resources remain 
economically viable.

These projects are ideal because they are located in regions where there 
are easily accessible CO2 storage sites, they have access to 
infrastructure, and the necessary human capital and supporting 
technologies are already in place.

This is in the spirit of section 413 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, 
which provided for federal cost sharing for a clean coal demonstration 
project from coal mined in the western United States. Section 413, 
however, was never funded. Our project will satisfy the policy objectives 
of section 413 by providing new and retrofit technologies that advance 
utility-scale, clean coal demonstration projects in the western states. 
Consistent with section 413, our projects will be at altitude of greater 
than 4,000 feet above sea level, use sub-bituminous or bituminous coal 
with an energy content of up to 13,000 btu/lb, and sequester carbon 
through deep saline aquifer storage or enhanced oil/gas recovery.

These projects are consistent with findings from scientists who have 
concluded that: (i) carbon capture and sequestration is likely to be 
competitive with other major carbon mitigation technologies; (ii) the 
geological carbon dioxide storage capacity in the Great Plains and 
Intermountain West coincides with large coal reserves; and, (iii) there 
is good cause to be optimistic about the safety and security of 
geological carbon dioxide storage with careful planning and management.

Funding clean coal technologies is also in concert with the G8 Summit in 
Japan last July, where the eight countries committed to sponsor twenty 
large-scale, fully-integrated, carbon capture and sequestration 
demonstration projects by 2010. The United States agreed to sponsor at 
least ten of these projects. The unfolding global financial crisis, 
however, has cast a shadow on the prospects for ten U.S. utility-scale 
carbon capture and sequestration projects, such that we believe no 
projects will happen without federal assistance. We further believe that 
projects that have broad participation from states, utilities, and other 
stakeholders provide the best opportunity for early success in proving up 
and advancing the critical technologies needed to move us closer to 
solutions.

Finally, our intent is to assure that the projects funded under this 
effort are capable of meeting the emissions and sequestration performance 
standards adopted for electric generating units by the state of 
California. In order to compete, any clean coal technology must be 
capable of meeting those standards. And of course, any such project will 
require broad stakeholder support as well as a commitment from our states 
to expedite regulatory and permitting processes for advanced coal 
projects that include a significant component of carbon capture and 
sequestration. This letter is evidence of our commitment to such an 
endeavor.

Thank you for your attention to this important energy initiative. We look 
forward to working with you to accomplish these goals.

Sincerely,
Bill Ritter Jr.

Governor of Colorado
Jon M. Huntsman, Jr.

Governor of Utah
Dave Freudenthal
Governor of Wyoming

cc: Secretary of Energy Steven Chu; Assistant to the President for Energy 
and Climate Change, Carol Browner; Colorado, Utah and Wyoming 
Congressional Delegations


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cheers,
Stephen 
stephen at MelbPC.org.au