2009-12-05 00:23:47 -

The Clear Air Task Force, an independent environmental advocacy organization not supported by industry, today applauded Energy Secretary Chu for providing nearly $1 billion in grants for globally significant low-carbon coal projects. Using different technologies, each of the projects will capture and sequester up to 90% of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) from coal.

“DOE’s $979 million award to three groundbreaking coal plants with high carbon capture provides critical support to advance cleaner coal technologies,” said John Thompson, Coal Transition Project Director for the Clean Air Task Force. “Coal accounts for nearly 40 percent of the world’s greenhouse pollution. Without deep cuts in coal’s carbon emissions, it’s not possible to stop the worst impacts of global warming.”


The DOE-funded projects are globally

significant.



- Summit Texas Clean Energy, LLC – the first commercial scale Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) plant to capture up to 90% of carbon dioxide (CO₂), test gasification of low rank coals and use hydrogen-powered turbines. The captured CO₂ will be used for enhanced oil recovery efforts in West Texas oil fields.


- American Electric Power Company, Inc. - the first retrofitted commercial scale plant to capture up to 90% of CO₂ using chilled ammonia technology for carbon separation. The CO₂ will be injected and stored more than a mile underground in saline aquifers.


- Southern Company Services, Inc. - the first retrofitted commercial scale project to capture up to 90% of CO₂ using amine technology for carbon separation. The CO₂ will be injected and stored deep underground in saline aquifers.

“These plants are an important step forward, but Congress and the President must do more. The nation must commit billions of dollars each year to carbon capture and storage to promote innovation, the creation of a new industry, and a healthy global environment,” Thompson added.



About the Clean Air Task Force

The Clean Air Task Force is a nonprofit organization dedicated to reducing atmospheric pollution through research, advocacy, and private sector collaboration. CATF is recognized as one of the nation’s leading environmental organizations addressing air quality and atmospheric protection issues, and its work is widely respected in government and industry. CATF receives no industry funding. For more information about the Clean Air Task Force’s coal transition project, visit www.coaltransition.org :



John Thompson, Clean Air Task Force618.203.6233 jthompson@catf.us : mailto:jthompson@catf.us orDave

Lundy, Aileron312.629.5245 dlundy@aileroninc.com : mailto:dlundy@aileroninc.com