Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
12/4/2015
A group of more than 600 state and local Democratic officials in a Nov. 24 letter to President Barack Obama called for increased government support for carbon capture and storage technology. “If we are to be serious about addressing the climate challenge, we must get serious about CCS, making the same public commitment to it that we have to the development and deployment of the other two ‘legs of the climate stool’ – increased energy efficiency and increased use of non-fossil fuels (renewables and nuclear),” the group wrote.
Climate change is an immediate threat, the letter says, but the government’s actions to address the issue have been misguided. Coal and other fossil fuels will continue to be widely used far into the future, according to several studies by groups such as the International Energy Agency and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ignoring this fact and trying to push coal out prematurely could be devastating to the nation’s economy, according to the letter.
“[W]e must focus our efforts on the development and use of truly sustainable – abundant, affordable, reliable, and clean – energy. At present, no source of energy meets all four elements of sustainability. For that reason, the United States must ignite an era of energy innovation, working to make clean those electrons that are today affordable and reliable, and make affordable and reliable those electrons that are relatively clean,” the group wrote. The officials further stated that current policies have skewed toward the latter, heavily supporting renewables and energy efficiency while failing to support efforts to clean up conventional fuels, such as coal. “More than talk about ‘policy parity,’ we must make it real,” they said.
Currently, the administration’s actions, through the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emissions standards for new and existing coal-fired power plants, have failed to acknowledge the reality of coal’s continued use, according to the letter, which is signed by state and local Democratic officials from 32 states, including 172 state legislators from 32 states, 278 local elected officials from 18 states and 148 Democratic Party officials from 23 states.
The regulation for new coal-fired power plants, developed under Section 111(b) of the Clean Air Act, essentially mandates the use of partial CCS for all new-build coal plants. This will impede, not accelerate, the deployment of CCS, the group asserted. “Rather than driving CCS forward, the rule threatens to discourage continued investment in the development and deployment of CCS in the United States. To do so, the rule, contrary to the very purposes for which it has been created, would actually work against itself,” the letter says.
The regulation for existing coal-fired power plants is equally concerning as it may “place tremendous economic burdens on the American economy, American families, and American businesses, without any direct material impact on global CO2 emissions,” the group wrote. The rule’s success in driving down global emissions is contingent on other countries following the U.S.’ lead, but the rule’s potential side effects might not yield that outcome, according to the letter. “Leadership requires that others follow, and while we not only support, but call for U.S. leadership in addressing the global climate challenge, policies that increase the cost of electricity and reduce the reliability of the grid – as the EPA’s proposal for existing units would do – will not lead other nations to follow, particularly not those in the developing world,” the group wrote.
