August 04, 2010

The pursuit of carbon capture and sequestration technologies is a national priority. As such, the U.S. Department of Energy will award $67 million over three years to those projects that are developing the relevant tools.

While the Obama administration is best known for its stimulus funds aimed at producing more green technologies, it has also begun emphasizing carbon capture and sequestration. The White House has set a goal of bringing 5 to 10 demonstration projects on line by 2016 -- an endeavor that would focus for now on coal, which provides half of the nation's electric generation mix.

May 17, 2010

Just when the global warming debate starts to simmer, the reintroduction of legislation has caused it perk back up. Three senators across the great political divide have produced a bill that they think can win the votes to reach the president's desk.

The major sticking point is that of cap-and-trade. That is essentially a free-market approach -- as opposed to a command-and-control tack -- to curbing greenhouse gases. From there, the recently drafted bill would promote nuclear power, natural gas vehicles and clean coal. So, while the measure is meant to sway ambivalent lawmakers, it now proceeds to anger the more liberal constituents.

May 12, 2010

The controversy surrounding coal ash may finally settle. National regulators have issued a proposal and have given industry three months to respond -- one that presents two distinct possibilities while still allowing the beneficial reuse of the coal combustion byproduct in such things as cement.

While the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said that its recommendations are the first time ever that coal ash would fall under national rules, it nevertheless has asked interested parties to weigh in on the options. The first of its solutions would be to regulate the toxic material under federal hazardous waste laws. The second would allow the EPA to make recommendations to the states, which would maintain control. In both cases, the landfills that take in coal ash would need liners and groundwater monitoring devices.

April 23, 2010

Coal producers are trying to refurbish their image. But the current hardship in which 29 miners died in underground explosion in West Virginia is making it difficult.

A critical question to arise from that accident is the long-term affect it will have on coal production and specifically whether it will force regulators to enact stricter laws. Tougher oversight, of course, would tend to require not just more safety standards but also stronger pollution controls, all of which would add costs. Utilities would then have to incorporate those new rules into their long-term planning decisions.

April 09, 2010

No issue has been as politically polarizing as climate change. With the positions of both the right and the left mostly predictable, the power is now in the hands of the political and industrial moderates.

Legislation to curb greenhouse gases may be stalled on Capitol Hill where the administration has lost its filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. But regulations released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reduce such heat-trapping emissions are moving forward. That should force Congress' hand, which can either step up and write its own rules or live by what the federal agency is imposing.