GHG Monitor
7/24/2015
IN INDUSTRY
The Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) will hold a hearing Aug. 3 to consider Mississippi Power’s request to increase rates to recover funds related to the company’s Kemper County Energy Facility. Kemper, once completed, will be a first-of-its-kind new-build coal-fired power plant. Through the use of carbon capture and storage technology, Kemper will have CO2 emissions roughly equal to those of a gas-fired plant. Mississippi Power is seeking a rate increase of 18 percent, which would replace a 2013 rate order overturned by the State Supreme Court in February. Following a July 7 PSC order that Mississippi Power start refunding funds collected under the 2013 rate order, Mississippi Power filed a petition for interim relief. “Given the challenges identified in MPC’s filing, attachment and testimony, the Commission finds that the public convenience and necessity requires an evidentiary hearing be held,” according to the PSC notice.
ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT
The Australian government this week officially opened a $35.6 million (USD) National Geosequestration Laboratory (NGL) in Perth. The lab’s research will focus on the identification, assessment, and development of long-term carbon storage sites. The lab is a collaboration between the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Curtin University, and The University of Western Australia. “The coal and gas sectors are major contributors to our economy and to our diverse energy mix, and are also vital in powering economic development in some of the world’s most rapidly growing countries, so this research in CCS technology is particularly important for Australia,” Minister for Industry and Science Ian Macfarlane said in a release.
