A Government Accountability Office (GAO) study released in late September concludes that technological, legal, and regulatory uncertainties—compounded by the absence of a national strategy for combating global warming—are blocking deployment of crucial technology to capture and sequester carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants.

As senior members of Congress lay the groundwork for a new legislative debate on climate change next year, a new proposal making the rounds of Capitol Hill offices would replace the cap-and-trade approach now in vogue with one in which all carbon permits are auctioned and all auction revenues are returned to consumers.

Roger Feldman
Proposed U.S. legislation appears likely to use carbon offsets or credits, although the details remain unclear. I wonder if these schemes adequately support the goal of global greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Dr. Robert Peltier, PE
The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, just released its report on the status of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology and its view of the technology’s future development challenges. In general, the GAO concludes that the technology faces grave technological, regulatory, economic, and legal barriers that will not be easily overcome.

The more capable a power-generating unit is of reacting quickly to changes in load demand, the more profitably the unit can be operated. An improvement in load dynamics means that additional control response and capacity can be made available to the power grid. These characteristics are especially in demand in regions where a fast-responding unit can supply energy as ancillary services at a premium price.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, just released its report on the status of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology and its view of the technology’s future development challenges. In general, the GAO concludes that the technology faces grave technological, regulatory, economic, and legal barriers that will not be […]

It’s entirely predictable. Once a new president is elected, the most popular topic in Washington becomes “the name game.” Who’s in, who’s out, who will get the political plum jobs. Indeed, there is an official government publication, called The Plum Book, that lists the 7,000 or so political jobs that an incoming administration can appoint […]

Ministers at the UK House of Commons last week approved, by a clear majority, a climate change bill that would commit that country to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. If the bill passes scrutiny by the parliament’s upper house and receives Royal Assent—as is expected later […]

Six New England states and New York last week asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic coal plants to clean up their smokestack mercury emissions. The seven states—Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont—have claimed that mercury pollution from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Michigan, […]

T. Boone Pickens will “scale back” a multibillion-dollar project to build the world’s biggest wind farm in Texas because of the capital market crunch. The Texas oilman’s Mesa Power LLP had announced plans for a four-phase project to add 4,000 MW of wind power to the Texas grid last year. The Pampa Wind Project was […]