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E2 Morning Round-up: BP plugs the well from above, ‘clean’ coal plan gets a makeover, Bingaman holds out hope for renewables bill, and more
BP cements the first of two deaths for its runaway well
The oil giant on Thursday finished the first stage in the endgame of its months-long effort to seal the ruptured well.
“BP Plc completed a cement plug at the top of its Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, sealing off the source of millions of gallons of oil dumped into the sea after an April drilling-rig explosion.”
“Cementing the top of the well completes the so-called static kill. The next stage for BP is to finish drilling a relief well that will intercept with the bottom of Macondo to inject cement. The bottom plug is needed to ensure there is no leakage inside the 13,000-foot-long well bore beneath the seafloor, National Incident Commander Thad Allen said yesterday.”
But the Obama administration isn’t declaring victory yet.
“Even with the static kill, to me, as the federal on-scene coordinator, that does not buy me the full assurance that that well is permanently shut-in,” Allen said. “We’re not out of the woods yet, out of the well site, until we have a permanent well kill.”
Rebooting ‘clean’ coal for $1 billion
The Energy Department announced Thursday that it's steering $1 billion in stimulus aid into a revised version of the long-planned and troubled “FutureGen” project, a prototype coal-fired power plant that would trap and store almost all of its carbon dioxide emissions.
The project is aimed proving the viability of carbon capture and storage, which is seen as critical to using coal – the dominant electricity source in the U.S. and China – without cooking the planet.
The old plan: DOE and a consortium of power and mining companies — called the FutureGen Alliance — build the plant from the ground up in Mattoon, Ill.
The new plan: DOE and the alliance — along with some new partners — will retrofit an idled Ameren Corp. power plant in Meredosia, Ill., using a different technology for turning coal into power, while moving the trapped CO2 via a new pipeline system to an underground storage site in Mattoon.
Still happy: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat who has fought to keep the project alive in his state. The Bush administration launched FutureGen in 2003 but bagged it 2008, citing cost overruns. The Obama administration reversed the decision.
“As with the original FutureGen, Mattoon and the state of Illinois are positioned as leaders in innovative technology that can serve as a model for the nation,” Durbin said in a prepared statement. “The new project stays true to the original goal of dramatically reducing pollution and providing thousands of good paying jobs in our state.”
Not Happy: Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who called the whole thing a boondoggle. He said in the Wall Street Journal that it “appears to have more to do with politics and geography than science” and “taxpayers are being forced to finance the largest pork-barrel project in our nation's history with borrowed money.”
The revised project differs from the original FutureGen idea in several ways.
Out are plans to use “integrated gasification combined cycle” to create power and produce a stream of CO2 for capture. In are plans to use a technology called “Oxy-combustion” that “burns coal with a mixture of oxygen and CO2 instead of air to produce a concentrated CO2 stream for safe, permanent, storage. In addition, oxy-combustion technology creates a near-zero emissions plant by eliminating almost all of the mercury, SOx, NOx, and particulate pollutants from plant emissions,” according to DOE.
“This investment in the world’s first, commercial-scale, oxy-combustion power plant will help to open up the over $300 billion market for coal unit repowering and position the country as a leader in an important part of the global clean energy economy,” said Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
Speaking of Durbin . . .
A slew of Democrats are pushing leadership to broaden the narrow energy and oil-spill package that was shelved until after the August break. But the majority whip told reporters Thursday that moving a broad energy bill in September would be “very difficult.” And in a lame duck session? “I don’t know, maybe that’s more likely,” Durbin said.
Bingaman hopes to keep renewable power standard alive
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has said a few times recently that there are not 60 votes for a renewable electricity standard (RES), which would require utilities supply escalating amounts of power from sources like wind and solar energy.
But Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) — who steered an RES through his committee 14 months ago only to see it languish since — isn’t quite so pessimistic.
“I don’t know if there are [60 votes] or not. I haven’t done the nose count yet,” Bingaman told reporters in the Capitol.
“I think we are anxious to revisit the issue here when we get back and see if the necessary support is there to do something on it before Congress adjourns,” he said Thursday, noting that he will probably lobby skeptical lawmakers when they get back into town after the recess.
More coal on Capitol Hill
Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) rolled out a bill Thursday to boost coal projects that trap emissions and the use of underground carbon sequestration. The bill is a package of new and revised tax credits to subsidize the technology.
Hatch said the bill makes the best of White House policy decisions he doesn’t favor.
“I don’t favor government regulation of carbon emissions, but that appears to be the direction some agencies are heading. Our legislation recognizes that our nation’s economic strength is based, in large part, on energy from coal; therefore, it is important to actively promote the cleanest and most advanced technologies related to coal energy," he said in a statement.
In case you missed it
Thursday evening news from The Hill: Darren Goode looks at a bipartisan group of senators fighting EPA plans to toughen smog rules. Meanwhile, Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) said a deal is at hand on oil spill liability legislation, though it hasn’t materialized yet.
Murkowski emerges from father’s shadow
Also, check out Darren’s profile of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
