Top US Senate Dem on energy chills climate bills

09 July 2008 19:53  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--The top US Senate Democrat with authority over energy issues said on Wednesday that the US cannot implement a cap-and-trade climate control mandate unless carbon capture technology is first proven.

 

Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a major policy speech that “what is needed is to figure out if carbon capture and storage will work at the scales we will need” in order to limit and then reduce US carbon emissions.

 

Bingaman, who as chairman of the Senate energy panel would have major influence on any climate legislation Congress might consider, said that the need to ensure the viability of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is one of ten core principles that should guide US climate control legislation.

 

“We need to invest in this [CCS] technology agenda immediately, even before the implementation of a cap-and-trade system, so we can figure out right away if our caps are based on technically viable options,” he said.

 

Under various cap-and-trade mandates being considered by Congress, a limit or cap would be placed on US emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases (GHG), with those maximum amounts reduced annually to reach a target level.

 

Chemical manufacturers and other industries would be obliged to purchase permits that would allow each facility a certain level of emissions.  Those firms whose emissions are lower than allowed by law could trade their excess credits to other companies whose pollution levels are above allowance.

 

Many in industry argue that a cap-and-trade system cannot work without causing major harm to the US economy, noting among other things that the country relies on carbon-heavy coal to produce 50% of its electric power.

 

The US chemicals industry generally opposes cap-and-trade legislation, fearing such a programme would trigger wholesale fuel-shifting among electric utilities from coal to cleaner burning natural gas, driving demand and pricing sharply upward for that key industry feedstock.

 

In theory, technology to capture and sequester (or bury) the carbon emissions of coal-fired power plants would allow continued use of coal, a major energy source for the US and other industrialized nations and increasingly for developing countries such as China.  However, carbon capture and sequestration is as yet an unproven theory.

 

Bingaman said that CCS technology is essential to a cap-and-trade plan and to the question of “whether coal can continue to play the major role it historically has in energy generation”.

 

“If carbon capture and storage is found not to be viable, that will severely alter the energy policy pathways that we will need to pursue,” Bingaman said.

 

Among his nine other core principles for climate change legislation, Bingaman said a mandatory cap-and-trade programme would have to cover all US industries and economic sectors without exception and must overrule any efforts by individual states to control emissions.

 

He said the policy goal announced by the G-8 meeting in Japan on Tuesday to achieve a 50% reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 “can only be achieved with an enormous change in the way the economies of the world function”.

 

($1 = €.64)

 

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By: Joe Kamalick
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