Hill Heat

The purpose of the hearing is to receive testimony on the regulatory aspects of carbon capture, transportation, and sequestration and to receive testimony on two related bills: S. 2323, a bill to provide for the conduct of carbon capture and storage technology research, development and demonstration projects, and for other purposes; and S. 2144, a bill to require the Secretary of Energy to conduct a study of the feasibility relating to the construction and operation of pipelines and carbon dioxide sequestration facilities, and for other purposes.

Witnesses

Panel 1

• Joseph T. Kelliher, Chairman, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
• Krista Edwards, Deputy Administrator, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation
• Benjamin Grumbles, Assistant Administrator for Water, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
• C. Stephen Allred, Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management, U.S. Department of Interior
• James Slutz, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Office of Oil and Natural Gas, U.S. Department of Energy

Panel 2

• Lawrence Bengal, Director, Arkansas Oil and Gas Commission
• Scott Anderson, Senior Policy Adviser, Environmental Defense
• Tracy Evans, Senior Vice President, Reservoir Engineering, Denbury Resources, Inc.

31/01/2008 at 10:00AM

Representatives of the coal, oil, and gas lobby met yesterday at the United States Energy Association’s “State of the Energy Industry” conference at the National Press Club in Washington. They agreed that Lieberman-Warner may be the best legislation they can hope for, especially if issues like polar bear habitat set the standard for legislation.

Katherine Ling reports for E&E Daily that David Parker, president and CEO of the American Gas Association, said “Who would you rather have writing a bill in the Senate? I might guess it may set a tone for business to fully work with the Senate this year.” He continued that “the polar bear habitat is going to really drive this [climate change] debate. We all have a big education job to do and I think we need to do it collectively.”

Bill Scher has further commentary at Blog for Our Future.

National Security David Sassoon at Solve Climate notes that Michael McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence, had this to say in a New Yorker profile when asked if Al Qaeda is the greatest threat America faces:

No, no, no, not at all. Terrorism can kill a lot of people, but it can’t fundamentally challenge the ability of the nation to exist. Fascism could have done that. Communism could have. I think our issue going forward is more engagement with the world in terms of keeping it on a reasonable path, so another ism doesn’t come along and drive it to one extreme or another.

And we have to some balance in terms of equitable distribution of wealth, containment of contagious disease, access to energy supplies, and development of free markets. There are national security ramifications to global warming.

Biofuels Technology Review has an extensive piece on the Price of Biofuels, covering the ramifications of America’s heavy investment in corn ethanol and the uncertain future of cellulosic ethanol. The New York Times reports Europe May Ban Imports of Some Biofuel Crops as it recognizes the drastic environmental harm and negative global-warming consequences of replacing rainforest with palm-oil plantations.

China In Dealing with the Dragon, Paul Krugman argues that China should be the U.S.’s primary foreign policy concern, in large part because of climate change, “which will eventually be recognized as the most crucial problem facing America and the world — maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of our lives.”

Coal Heather Moyer at Sierra Club’s Clean Energy Watch points to another New York Times piece that reports:

A justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court and a powerful coal-company executive met in Monte Carlo in the summer of 2006, sharing several meals even as the executive’s companies were appealing a $50 million jury verdict against them to the court.

Join Rainforest Action Network, Coal River Mountain Watch, Appalachian Voices , Rising Tide, Mountain Justice Summer, SEAC and a cast of thousands as we mobilize to stop Bank of America and Citi’s investments in the dirty coal industry for the Day of Action Against Coal Finance.

On November 16th and 17th we are asking anyone and everyone concerned with stopping the US coal rush to join us in taking the message to Wall Street. From flyering and leafletting at your local bank branch or ATM, to creative street theater or non-violent direct action at bank offices – help our climate and communities by demanding clean energy.

Get training and support. We have several conference calls for our network before the event. If you need training, ideas, support, or want to find others in your area – contact us at [email protected]

Download flyers, signs, banners and more. Check out our Action Resources Page.

It’s time to take to the streets and send Bank of America and Citi a strong message that grassroots movements against coal extraction, processing and combustion demand an end to coal financing.

RSVP.

16/11/2007 at 12:00AM

This memo is being circulated among target companies:

Rainforest Action Network (RAN) is organizing what it calls a National Day of Action Against Coal Finance on Nov. 16 and 17. They have distributed flyers and are planning a rally at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17, at Kiener Plaza. Another rally is being planned at Washington University on Friday, Nov. 16. They are targeting Peabody as well as Bank of America and Citigroup, Inc. At a recent rally in Charlotte, N.C., four protesters were arrested for trespassing while hanging a giant banner from a crane at a nearby construction project. Please exercise caution when entering and leaving the office on Friday and Saturday.

Ed.—links added.

Following the GoogleAds on this site may lead to these coal industry websites:

• Americans for Balanced Energy Choices

From SourceWatch:

Formed in 2000 to develop astroturf support for coal-based electricity, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC) promotes the interests of mining companies, coal transporters, and electricity producers. ABEC’s website is registered to the coal industry trade organization Center for Energy and Economic Development.

• Clean Coal USA

Clean Coal USA is an openly industry-funded site. The members are the following trade groups: The Association of American Railroads, the coal industry lobby group Center for Energy and Economic Development, the electric power industry lobby group Edison Electric Institute, the National Mining Association, and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

From E&E News (subs. req.): Boucher told a business forum that he has been in talks with the Bush’s environmental advisors, including Jim Connaughton, chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, about crafting cap-and-trade legislation Bush would sign.

According to the E&E report, Boucher did not think that having a bill that largely preempted state efforts would be problematic. He went on to say that there need to be more protections for the coal industry, and a minimal cap on emissions for the next twenty years.

Boucher said any measure that forces coal-fired power plants to curb emissions too fast – before carbon capture and sequestration can be widely deployed – would cause major shifts to natural gas and drive up prices.

Boucher said the upcoming climate bill will provide a “somewhat forgiving, a gentle introduction to controls” until carbon capture and storage is ready, which he said would be around 2025. Before that, he said, coal-fired utilities will need other options available to meet obligations, such as purchase of offsets.

“The schedule prior to 2025 has got to be more forgiving,” he told reporters. “The schedule after 2025 can be very rigorous.”

Boucher said Senate proposals would impose major limits too fast. “I don’t think the Senate bills adequately address that need because the control schedule is quite severe in the early years, before we have carbon capture and storage available,” he said. “If they default to natural gas, real harm to the economy occurs.”

Today Sen. Kerry chaired a hearing on geological carbon sequestration and introduced legislation to establish CCS demonstration projects.

The legislation provisions:

• Establish 3-5 commercial-scale sequestration facilities
• Establish 3-5 “first-of-a-kind” coal-fired demonstration plants with carbon capture
• Establish an interagency process to determine a regulatory framework for CCS
• Direct USGS to perform a capacity assessment of sequestration potential; establish an aggressive CCS R&D program at DOE
• Authorize technology sharing agreements with China, India and other coal-intensive developing countries.

At the hearing the consensus was that the federal government should invest not only in a few large-scale projects, but also a greater number of small-scale pilot tests, and in use-directed fundamental research. The EPRI representative emphasized the advantages of starting R&D investment before carbon emissions pricing kicks in, and promoted the work EPRI has done to study advanced coal technologies and CO2 capture and sequestration.

• Dr. Howard Herzog, Principal Research Engineer, MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment
• Mr. Charles E. Fox, Vice President, Kinder Morgan CO2 Company, L.P.
• Dr. Sally Benson, Executive Director, Global Climate and Energy Project, Professor, Energy Resources Engineering Department, Stanford University
• Dr. Robert C. Burruss, Research Geologist, Energy Resources Team, U.S. Geological Survey
• Mr. Ron Wolfe, Corporate Forester and Natural Resources Manager, Sealaska Corporation
• Dr. Bryan Hannegan, Vice President, Environment Electric Power Research Institute

07/11/2007 at 02:30PM

In response to the Kansas state’s decision to deny permits for two new Sunflower Electric coal plants, a group funded by Sunflower Electric placed a newspaper ad arguing that

without new, next-generation coal-fueled plants, Kansans will be captive to high-priced natural gas, allowing hostile foreign countries to control the energy policy of Kansas and America. We are already held hostage to some of these same countries for oil.

The text of the ad runs below full-color photographs of Vladimir Putin, Hugo Chavez, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The Natural Gas Supply Association and Kansas Gas Service have not yet responded.