The following is a joint letter to the President from the
governors of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/GovRitter/GOVR/1235392134206
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