Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
9/26/2014
The U.S. Department of Energy and Natural Resources Canada late last week signed a Memorandum of Understanding concerning enhanced energy efforts including carbon capture and storage. Under the MOU, the countries will work together on various fronts including knowledge sharing, technical information and research plans aimed at a variety of energy matters. The countries will collaborate to reduce the cost of CCS technologies, according to a Natural Resources Canada release. Canada is poised to host the first coal power plant to utilize CCS technology with the scheduled early October opening of SaskPower’s Boundary Dam CCS project in Saskatchewan. The United States is not far behind with Mississippi Power’s Kemper County Energy Facility scheduled to be fully operational in 2015.
Other areas addressed in the MOU included improving “environmental practices in conventional and unconventional oil and gas development; enhancing the reliability and security of the North American energy infrastructure; supporting the advancement of an efficient and clean electric grid; enhancing coordination on energy efficiency standards; facilitating increased use of natural gas in the transportation sector … and engaging in regional and multilateral dialogues on energy and environmental issues to advance shared priorities,” according to the release.
