WRAP UP

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
7/12/13

IN CONGRESS

A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee advanced a bill this week that would bar the Environmental Protection Agency from finalizing any major energy-related regulations if the Secretary of Energy deems they could have “significant adverse effects” on the economy. The Energy and Power Subcommittee approved the “Energy Consumers Relief Act” on a 17-10 party-line vote July 10. The measure would require EPA to submit a report to Congress detailing a rule’s cost and impacts on energy prices and employment ahead of promulgation if it has an industry compliance cost of more than $1 billion. The Secretary of Energy would then be required to determine how each rule would impact energy prices, fuel diversity and local electric reliability and decide whether the regulation could have “significant adverse effects” on the economy. Energy and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) circulated a draft version of the bill earlier this spring.

IN DOE

A Department of Energy report released this week says the United States’ electrical system is increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The report says that annual temperatures in the U.S. have increased by roughly 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last century and that if the trend continues, due to increased water temperatures, power plants that use water for cooling purposes could be unable to produce electricity. The report also said more frequent and intense storms could damage energy infrastructure located near coastal areas, while increased flooding and wildfires could lead to higher risk of physical damage to power lines and energy distribution systems. “Federal, state and local governments and the private sector are already responding to the threat of climate change. … However, the pace, scale and scope of combined public and private efforts to improve the climate preparedness and resilience of the energy sector will need to increase, given the challenges identified. Greater resilience will require improved technologies, polices, information and stakeholder engagement,” the report says.

IN THE INDUSTRY

Skyonic Corp. said this week that it has awarded a $117 million contract to Toyo-Thai-USA Corp. to construct its CO2 utilization retrofit project at a cement plant in San Antonio, Texas. Skyonic said the Thai company will provide engineering, procurement and construction services to the project, which is expected to break ground in the coming weeks. Skyonic said late last month that it had secured $128 million to date in investments from companies like BP, ConocoPhillips and Cenovus Energy for the project’s construction. With the help of a $28 million grant from the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory, Skyonic is looking to capture 83,000 tons of CO2 from the cement plant, as well as acid gases and heavy metals found in the flue gas, and mineralize them into products that can be sold on the market like sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, as well as hydrochloric acid, currently in high demand as a natural gas fracking fluid.