Welcome to your Friday Rundown for the week ending Aug. 10. Feedback is always welcome at info@clearpathaction.org.
BREAKING DOWN THE BENEFITS OF CARBON CAPTURE
Enhanced oil recovery, the process of injecting and trapping carbon into the ground at mature fields to extract hard-to-reach petroleum, has been going on for decades. Nine large facilities in the U.S. currently do this. But only one – Petra Nova near Houston – is a power plant. Why? Because capturing and sending that carbon to oil fields isn’t easy or cheap.
In his latest digital whiteboard video, ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell (with the visual assistance of Production Director Mitch Kersey) explains that the carbon emitted from far more power – up to 87 gigawatts from coal and natural gas by 2040 – could be captured if the U.S. aggressively pursues research, development and demonstration of breakthrough technologies that can dramatically lessen the cost. This strategy must include public and private partnerships throughout the entire RD&D cycle, more aggressive investments and streamlined permitting for pipelines that can carry the carbon from the plant to oil fields.
And – as Rich details from a recent study from ClearPath, the Carbon Utilization Research Council and key unions – the economic benefits to the nation could be huge.
A multi-million dollar effort has started at the University of Michigan to boost technologies specifically geared to removing carbon and then utilizing the emissions to produce everyday products – from shoes to concrete. The Global CO2 Initiative is funded with up to $4.5 million and aims to reduce the equivalent of 10 percent of current atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions annually by 2030.
ClearPath’s policy triumvirate – Jeremy Harrell, Spencer Nelson and Justin Ong – were in Copenhagen this May at the 9th annual Clean Energy Ministerial when U.S. and other officials launched two significant efforts to better recognize carbon capture and advanced nuclear as clean energy tools.
They followed up in a blog mapping out just why the efforts led by the U.S., Canada, Japan and others shouldn’t be overlooked but also why there is still much work to do to elevate those issues on the global stage, including at next year’s ministerial hosted by Canada.
CLEARPATH ENDORSES MARTHA MCSALLY, STEVE KNIGHT
ClearPath Action Fund is endorsing Rep. Steve Knight (R-Calif.) for a third term in the House and Rep. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) in her Senate bid and will soon start running digital ads highlighting their records.
Knight is a leading sponsor of the Better Energy Storage Technology (BEST) Act, which would establish “moonshot” goals to promote the development of dramatically cheaper energy storage technologies. If achieved, these breakthroughs hold major economic potential for California as the state struggles to balance the need for grid reliability with higher levels of wind and solar, capturing excess electricity when demand and prices are low and then using that energy during peaks. The BEST Act is cosponsored by six Republicans and eight Democrats.
McSally has also supported an aggressive energy innovation agenda, including backing additional investments in the Department of Energy’s ARPA-E advanced energy effort. A former Air Force colonel, she also voted to protect the Pentagon’s ability to study the effects of a changing climate on our military to better protect our national security.
Both Knight and McSally supported a $1 billion increase in clean energy research in this year’s Department of Energy spending bill.
THURSDAY Senate Energy and Natural Resources hearing on William Cooper to be general counsel at the Energy Department and Lane Genatowski to be director of DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. DETAILS
