HEAD OF DOE’S ‘CLEAN COAL’ PROGRAM DEPARTING FOR PRIVATE SECTOR

Jim Wood Leaving Deputy Assistant Secretary Position After More Than Three Years

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
12/21/12

The head of the Department of Energy’s ‘clean coal’ program is leaving the Department Dec. 21 to return to the private sector, where he has spent most of his career. Jim Wood, deputy assistant secretary for Clean Coal in the Office of Fossil Energy (FE), confirmed he is leaving DOE Friday to join a “public company in the Northeast,” but would not specify further about his future. Immediately prior to DOE, Wood worked as president and CEO of the Massachusetts-based Babcock Power Inc., and was also in the senior leadership at Babcock & Wilcox and Wheelabrator Technologies.

In his three-and-a-half years at DOE, Wood managed FE’s $534 million Clean Coal R&D program, which oversees carbon capture and storage and cross-cutting research, as well as the country’s eight large-scale demonstration projects. He was responsible for administering the allocation and management of the country’s largest one-time infusion of cash into CCS—$3.4 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding—for major demonstration projects. That money was eventually channeled through programs like the Clean Coal Power Initiative, which has provided seed money to Summit Power Group’s Texas Clean Energy Project and Southern Company’s Kemper County Project in Mississippi. It also earmarked $1 billion to reinvigorate the country’s flagship CCS project, FutureGen 2.0, whose power purchase agreement with the state of Illinois was validated this week by state regulators.

Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Chuck McConnell said DOE has “benefitted greatly” from Wood’s leadership. “It has been no small task as FE is developing projects that will deploy nearly $5 billion in tax dollars—as well as $10 billion in matching cost-share from industry—for clean coal technology in the coming few years,” McConnell told GHG Monitor. “Integrating the technology along with the business challenges has required strong leadership. We wish Jim every success as he returns to private sector industry.” McConnell said Scott Klara, in his current role as principal deputy assistant secretary, will assume all leadership of FE’s coal program.