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April 18, 2007

Department of Energy Carbon Capture and Storage Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 2007

Bill Summary and Status

Reported (as amended) by the Full Committee June 27, 2007

An amendment offered by Mr. McCaul (R-TX) was defeated

Reported by the Energy & Environment Subcommittee (as amended) June 21, 2007

Introduced in the House April 18, 2007

Section by Section

Section 1. Short Title:
“Department of Energy Carbon Capture and Storage Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 2007.”

Section 2. Carbon Capture and Storage Research, Development, and Demonstration Program

Directs the Secretary of Energy to carry out fundamental science and engineering research to develop and document the performance of new approaches to capture and store carbon dioxide, or use carbon dioxide in products that lead to an overall reduction of carbon dioxide emissions. The fundamental research shall be applied to energy technology development activities and the field testing of carbon sequestration activities.

Requires the Secretary to promote regional carbon sequestration partnerships to conduct geologic sequestration field testing involving carbon dioxide injection and monitoring practices, mitigation, and verification operations in a variety of geologic settings including operating oil and gas fields, depleted oil and gas fields, unmineable coal seams, saline formations, deep geologic systems used to extract heat from geothermal resources, and high altitude terrain oil and gas fields.

The field tests are aimed at advancing and validating geophysical tools and analysis and modeling used to monitor, predict, and verify carbon dioxide containment. The Secretary is authorized to promulgate policies, procedures, requirements and guidance to ensure that the objectives of the field testing are met in large-scale testing and deployment activities for carbon capture and storage funded by the Department.

In addition, the bill authorizes seven large-volume sequestration tests for geologic containment of carbon dioxide. The Secretary shall select meritorious proposals on a competitive basis giving preference to proposals from partnerships among industrial, academic, and government entities. The Secretary shall consider a variety of geological formations across the United States and require characterization and modeling of candidate formations, as determined by the Secretary. The bill integrates the storage demonstrations with the demonstration of carbon dioxide capture technologies by giving preference to carbon dioxide captured from coal-fired electric generating plants and other industrial CO2 sources to provide operational experience with an integrated system of capture, transportation, and storage of carbon dioxide at scale. This preference shall not delay the implementation of the large-scale sequestration tests. H.R. 1933 defines large-scale injection of carbon dioxide as one million tons of carbon dioxide annually or a scale that demonstrably exceeds the necessary thresholds in key geologic transients to validate the ability to continuously inject large quantities of carbon dioxide for a number of years. The large-scale carbon dioxide sequestration demonstrations shall be considered research and development and meet the cost-sharing requirements of Section 988(b) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 – the Secretary shall require not less than 20 percent of the cost of a research or development activity to be provided by a non-Federal source.

The bill directs the Secretary to carry out three, but no more than five, demonstrations of carbon dioxide capture technologies – two of these demonstrations shall be conducted at facilities that generate electric energy from fossil fuels. These demonstrations must include the three main approaches to carbon dioxide capture: pre-combustion, post-combustion and oxycombustion. Any award under this carbon dioxide capture demonstration program is available only for the portion of the project that carries out the large-scale capture (including purification and compression) of carbon dioxide, as well as the cost of transportation and injection of carbon dioxide. The Secretary is required to take necessary actions to provide for the use of the carbon dioxide captured during the demonstrations in the long-term carbon dioxide sequestration demonstrations. These actions should not delay the implementation of the large-scale sequestration tests. The carbon dioxide capture demonstrations shall meet the cost-share requirements of Section 988 (c) of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 or the Secretary shall require that not less than 50 percent of the cost of the demonstration be provided by a non-Federal source.

This section authorizes appropriations of $100,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2008 through 2011 for research and development and field testing.

This section authorizes appropriations of $140,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008 through 2011 for carrying out the large-scale carbon dioxide sequestration demonstrations.

This section authorizes appropriations of $180,000,000 for each of the fiscal years 2009 through 2012 for the demonstrations of carbon dioxide capture technologies.

Section 3. Review of Large-Scale Programs
Authorizes the National Academy of Sciences to conduct an independent review and oversight of the injection program to ensure its benefits are maximized. Not later than January 1, 2012, the Secretary is directed to transmit to the Congress a report on the results of such review and oversight.

Section 4. Safety Research
Section 4 authorizes the Assistant Administrator for Research and Development of the Environmental Protection Agency to conduct a research program to determine the procedures that may be necessary to protect public health, safety, and the environment from potential impacts associated with capture, injection, and sequestration of greenhouse gases in subterranean reservoirs. Authorizes $5,000,000 for each fiscal year to carry out this research program.

Section 5. Geological Sequestration Training and Research
Directs the Secretary of Energy to enter into an arrangement with the National Academy of Sciences to undertake a study that defines an interdisciplinary program to train a workforce to support the nation’s capability to capture and sequester carbon dioxide from anthropogenic sources, and develops curricula for undergraduate and graduate studies that lead to degrees in geological sequestration science. The study will establish guidelines for universities wishing to implement geological sequestration science programs and make recommendations on the budget needed to implement the grant program also authorized in this section. The Secretary is directed to submit a report to Congress providing the results of the National Academy of Sciences study. Authorizes $1,000,000 for fiscal year 2008 to carry out this section.

Authorizes the Secretary of Energy, through the National Energy Technology Laboratory, to establish a competitive grant program through which institutions of higher education can apply for four-year grants to support salary and startup costs for newly designated faculty positions in an integrated geological carbon sequestration science program and internships for graduate students in geological sequestration science. The grants are renewable for up to two additional three-year terms and encouraged to interface with the research of the Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships operated by the Department of Energy to provide internships and practical training in carbon capture and geological sequestration. Authorizes such sums as necessary to carry out the grant program.

Section 6. University Based Research and Development Grant Program
Requires the Secretary of the Department of Energy to establish a university Research and Development program aimed at studying carbon dioxide capture and sequestration using all different coal types in conjunction with enhanced oil and mineral recovery. Five grant projects are authorized with at least two of the grants being awarded to rural and/or agricultural based institutions that offer interdisciplinary programs in the area of environmental science to study carbon capture and sequestration in conjunction with the enhance recovery of oil and other elemental and mineral recovery. The bill authorizes $10,000,000 to carry out this university grant program.