Back
CARBON CAPTURE: Documents show ExxonMobil lobbied aggressively for federal carbon capture subsidies — which stand to reap billions of dollars for the company — despite internal doubts about whether the technology will make a meaningful impact on emissions. (The Guardian)
ALSO: A California company cancels plans to build one of the world’s largest direct-air carbon capture facilities in Wyoming, citing intense competition from data centers for clean energy to power the facility. (Cowboy State Daily)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
OIL & GAS: The Biden administration grants its first gas export permit following a court ruling that blocked its efforts to delay the process. (The Hill)
POLITICS: An energy market expert refutes former President Trump’s claim that he could cut energy prices in half during his first year in office. (NBC News)
BATTERIES: A battery plant in a Pittsburgh suburb that has taken advantage of or is eligible for billions in public funds has created poor working conditions and has fired union-supporting workers, according to some employees. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
EFFICIENCY: Some affordable housing developers embrace Passive House building standards that make homes highly energy-efficient with only slightly higher upfront costs. (Energy News Network)
WIND: Vineyard Wind’s broken turbine blade, misinformation campaigns and a lack of forthrightness from offshore wind developers is causing a “public relations nightmare” for the industry. (Rhode Island Current)
SOLAR:
POLLUTION: A federal court rejects a new EPA rule tightening emissions standards for industrial boilers, saying the agency went too far in classifying facilities built before the rule was proposed as “new” pollution sources. (Reuters)
COMMENTARY: A climate advocate explains why his organization is opposing a bipartisan energy permitting bill, saying the legislation’s provisions advancing fossil fuels make the price “simply too high.” (Union of Concerned Scientists)
CARBON CAPTURE: The U.S. has spent more public money on carbon capture and gas-produced hydrogen than any country, a new report finds, even though the technologies remain unproven as cost-effective climate solutions. (The Guardian)
OIL & GAS:
BUILDINGS: The U.S. Energy Department announces $240 million to help state and local governments adopt more efficient building codes. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Oakland, California’s school district is the first major district in the U.S. to fully adopt electric school buses, which can send power back to the grid during high demand. (Grist)
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY: Along with the addition of 15 GW of solar, battery and wind over the last year, Texas added 6.6% more clean energy jobs to rank second in the U.S. after Idaho. (Houston Chronicle)
GRID:
POLITICS: Maryland’s election for a U.S. Senate seat could make or break federal climate action by stripping Democrats of their current majority. (Inside Climate News)
OVERSIGHT: Texas prepares to launch a new set of business courts overseen by a panel of judges who have previously represented oil and gas companies, raising questions about whether the new courts lean too far toward fossil fuel favoritism. (The Lever)
COMMENTARY: A columnist details how increasingly cheap and widely available solar power will make once-far-fetched applications possible. (New York Times)
CARBON CAPTURE: Oil companies are pinning their decarbonization hopes on carbon capture projects to reduce their emissions, but rising construction costs and the lagging pace of related infrastructure development are cutting into the value of federal tax credits for the technology. (Houston Chronicle)
EFFICIENCY: Critics slam Kentucky Power for its failure to be more ambitious with its energy efficiency programs amid data showing the utility’s poorest ratepayers used more electricity than average. (Kentucky Lantern)
SOLAR:
OIL & GAS:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Electric vehicle registration in a metro Tennessee county has surged nearly sevenfold since 2019. (Chattanooga Times Free Press, subscription)
GEOTHERMAL: A Houston-based startup announces construction of a 3 MW geothermal energy storage facility on land leased from an electric cooperative at the site of a coal mine and coal-fired power plant. (Houston Chronicle)
GRID: Georgia Power tracks the state’s growing number of data centers and their demand on the power grid, including a company’s proposal to build two more in the Atlanta metro region. (Atlanta Business Chronicle, subscription)
COAL: The family of West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice files for an injunction to stop the forced auction of a historic state resort that’s become the crown jewel of the coal baron’s business empire. (WV Metro News)
UTILITIES: A judge denies Texas utility CenterPoint Energy’s attempt to withdraw its request for a rate increase after receiving criticism over its response to Hurricane Beryl, prompting hopes by consumer advocates that regulators may order a rate decrease instead. (Houston Chronicle)
POLITICS: Georgia has received outsized benefits and investment under the federal climate package, but those gains could be undone if Donald Trump wins reelection. (Canary Media)
COMMENTARY:
PIPELINES: Iowa regulators approve the controversial Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline, and for developers to use eminent domain to acquire property, though the project still needs approval in the Dakotas. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
ALSO:
CLEAN ENERGY: District energy systems that heat and cool buildings in Minneapolis-St. Paul and beyond are facing increasing pressure to decarbonize and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. (Energy News Network)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Volkswagen will invest $5 billion in electric vehicle startup Rivian under a new joint venture to share EV architecture and software that could benefit Rivian’s roughly 8,000 workers in Illinois. (Reuters; Crain’s Chicago, subscription)
NUCLEAR:
SOLAR:
GRID: Indiana energy groups aren’t concerned about a new MISO outlook forecasting a potential future capacity shortfall, though they are urging more robust planning and avoiding plant retirements. (WTHR)
UTILITIES: A utility operating in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula withdraws a request for a permanent waiver in how it counts customer outage credits required under a new state law aiming to improve reliability. (Michigan Advance)
COMMENTARY:
Illinois’s carbon dioxide pipeline and sequestration law passed May 26 is being described as among the nation’s strictest. It is only the second carbon dioxide pipeline moratorium in the U.S., after California, and it creates a significant permitting process once the moratorium is lifted.
But landowners and advocates are still unhappy with several key provisions left out of the law, and said they are exploring options to end the use of eminent domain for carbon pipelines and protect landowners from carbon being sequestered in their underground pore space against their will.
“There’s a lot of good in there, but it definitely is a work in progress in terms of guard rails,” said Jennifer Cassel, a senior attorney for Earthjustice who worked with the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition that endorsed the new law after members previously worked with lawmakers on a stronger bill. “The federal uncertainty was part of the push, and there’s so much of a gold rush already happening,” with applications for 22 carbon dioxide injection wells pending in the state, plus various pipeline proposals.
SB 1289, or the SAFE Act, allows a company seeking to sequester carbon to move forward if the owners of 75% of the affected land agree to the plan, which provides them compensation. That means, critics note, that owners of 25% of the land cannot stop a project, even if they are opposed. Owners of small several-acre parcels would have few rights compared to large landowners, noted Pam Richart, co-founder of the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines.
The coalition had worked with lawmakers on a much more stringent bill, which would have limited the use of eminent domain to acquire land for pipelines and sequestration. It would also have banned the injection of carbon dioxide through the Mahomet Aquifer. The Farm Bureau opposed the SAFE Act in part because it didn’t address eminent domain, though the new law includes some protections regarding compensation for land damage.
“Landowners are profoundly disappointed that the act was approved without eminent domain [limits],” Richart said. “The landowner protections weren’t as strong as we hoped.”
The coalition’s preferred bill would not have allowed forced integration of pore space against landowners’ will. Richart said they expected some compromise on that front, but not to the extent enshrined in the SAFE Act.
“That’s not how this is supposed to work,” she said. “If a project is in the public interest, you wouldn’t expect landowners of 25% of the land to hold out.”
The SAFE Act stands for Safety and Aid for the Environment in Carbon Capture and Sequestration. It still awaits signature by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has indicated he will sign it, and bills become law after 60 days in Illinois if the governor takes no action.
Richart said advocates don’t plan to “reopen the whole process” around legislation, but hope to work with legislators on a trailer bill that could increase protections for landowners.
“A lot of legislators expressed serious concern about the aquifer, I wouldn’t be surprised if those issues and potentially others come back up in some form,” Cassel said.
The new law places a moratorium on new carbon dioxide pipelines for two years or until the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issues regulations for carbon dioxide pipelines, which are in the works. The previous bill advocates backed included a moratorium of four years or until the federal regulations are adopted. Cassel said labor unions felt that moratorium was too long.
Richart said the Illinois law is only a “quasi-moratorium” since companies can begin the application process for new pipelines even before the PHMSA regulations come out.
Meanwhile the SAFE Act does not include setbacks from properties for carbon dioxide pipelines. If the PHMSA regulations do not include setbacks, which is likely, Illinois advocates could push for setbacks under the permitting process created by the SAFE Act, since it allows for additional safety measures to be developed provided they are not in conflict with federal regulations.
Advocates say county governments, which have in multiple cases refused to approve sequestration sites connected to pipelines, could work together to push for setback policy.
Advocates are grateful for a robust public engagement process created by the new law.
“Before there was no requirement to notify anybody about a carbon dioxide pipeline except when the Illinois Commerce Commission was ready to begin its application process,” said Richart, citing two recent controversial proposals. “Wolf never notified anybody, One Earth never notified anybody. The commerce commission just said, ‘You better come to this hearing, it might be subject to eminent domain.’”
The Illinois Commerce Commission decides whether a given proposal is in the public interest and able to invoke eminent domain, but previously the commission had no authority over carbon sequestration sites and its consideration of pipelines was largely limited to property values.
The SAFE Act creates a permitting process that requires companies hold two public meetings in each affected county and post materials about the proposal and public comment process. Under the new law, the Illinois Commerce Commission can consider safety and other information in deciding whether to grant eminent domain powers.
Under the new law, companies must also pay into an emergency response fund and create an emergency plan, which entails modeling about possible risks and the expected distribution of carbon dioxide plumes in case of a leak.
“They have to do computational fluid dynamics modeling, and they have to make it public, at a time when there is a definite movement by pipeline developers to make their modeling proprietary, confidential,” said Richart. “So this is huge.”
Companies doing carbon injection and sequestration must also put up money for future environmental mitigation, so future costs don’t fall on the state. The law does not allow self-bonding, a controversial financing mechanism used by coal companies in the past that ultimately forced the state to foot the bill for mine cleanup.
The SAFE Act also enshrines safeguards to make sure that carbon capture and sequestration doesn’t ultimately lead to an increase in air pollution by allowing coal plants to keep operating, and it prohibits the use of carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery.
These protections gained approval from environmental justice organizations like the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, a member of the Illinois Clean Jobs Coalition.
The Illinois Corn Growers Association and Illinois Renewable Fuels Association also backed the new law. Their members stand to benefit from the expansion of the ethanol industry, which depends on carbon sequestration to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. While carbon capture and sequestration was launched in Illinois in relation to coal plants, recent pipeline proposals have focused primarily on connecting ethanol plants to sequestration sites.
State Rep. Ann Williams, a sponsor of the law, said in a statement that:
“Illinois is a national leader on climate and energy policy, and SB 1289 ensures that if companies are going to use CCS as a climate mitigation strategy, they will need to meet some of the strongest standards in the nation. The CCS protections bill ensures critical guardrails are in place to protect Illinois taxpayers, landowners and our environment.”
CO2 CAPTURE: Capturing carbon emissions at ethanol plants along the route of a proposed carbon pipeline would increase water use by billions of gallons annually, according to a new Sierra Club report criticizing the pipeline. (Cedar Rapids Gazette)
GRID:
UTILITIES: Xcel Energy is at odds with Minnesota officials over whether customers should pay at least $23 million in costs incurred last year after a maintenance worker error caused a nuclear plant to shut down for 100 days. (Star Tribune)
CLIMATE: Insurers are the “climate change canary in the coal mine,” one former state insurance commissioner says as billion-dollar disasters reach record highs, driving up policy costs and making homeownership less attainable. (Stateline)
SOLAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The engineering researchers behind a project electrifying a section of highway in Indiana hope the technology makes electric vehicles more palatable for drivers. (NPR)
EMISSIONS:
OIL & GAS: Louisiana is home to about a third of the nearly 200 carbon storage wells seeking permits in the U.S., but watchdog groups warn the presence of at least 186,000 abandoned oil and gas wells could complicate the process and cause safety issues. (Verite News)
ALSO: A San Antonio company files for reorganizational bankruptcy and moves to withdraw from a partnership to build a $10 billion liquefied natural gas export terminal on the Gulf Coast. (San Antonio Report)
INDUSTRY: The Biden administration is banking on “green steel” factories in Mississippi and Ohio that will run on clean hydrogen to provide a model to decarbonize one of the world’s dirtiest industries. (Canary Media)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Nissan delays changes at a Mississippi factory to produce more electric vehicles due to concerns about customer demand. (CNN)
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY: Virginia regulators approve three Dominion Energy battery projects, and Appalachian Power issues requests for battery, wind and solar projects as the two utilities aim to meet state decarbonization mandates. (Virginia Mercury)
POLITICS: Democrats say Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s refusal to rejoin a regional carbon market will cost the state $150 million annually, despite additional funding for state flood control programs. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
PIPELINES: A pipeline safety advocate discusses concerns about the Mountain Valley Pipeline after a section ruptured during water pressure testing. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
CLIMATE:
COMMENTARY:
Carbon dioxide pipeline and sequestration projects would face significant new scrutiny and regulations under proposed legislation introduced this week in Illinois.
Advocates who helped draft the proposal (SB 3930, HB 5814) say it is crucial to institute standards and protections, as multiple companies seek to sequester carbon in Illinois’ Mt. Simon sandstone geology and reap lucrative federal tax credits. The legislation was formally introduced Monday.
State lawmakers held a hearing earlier this month on separate bills (HB 4835, SB 3441) that would place a moratorium on carbon dioxide pipelines for four years or until new federal safety regulations are adopted by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).
Many Illinois residents and pipeline opponents are hoping both bills pass, to stop pipeline construction while the state studies safety issues, appropriate setbacks and other factors.
Companies seeking to sequester carbon dioxide in Illinois have so far failed to secure county approvals for proposed sites, and two major carbon dioxide pipeline proposals — from the companies Navigator CO2 Ventures and Wolf Carbon Solutions — were withdrawn from consideration by the Illinois Commerce Commission last year.
But Wolf is expected to refile its application for a necessary certificate of authority. And the commerce commission is currently considering a proposal from One Earth Energy for a six-mile pipeline that — if built — is expected to spur proposals for longer pipelines that would connect to it and a proposed sequestration site.
The newly proposed legislation, as described in a summary, includes: “pipeline setbacks for safe evacuation, limits on eminent domain, expanded monitoring at carbon sequestration sites, provisions for long-term liability in the event of disaster, a ban on the use of captured carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery.”
It would also mandate that when sequestration sites are proposed, regulatory agencies review life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions and consider alternatives to carbon sequestration. The legislation bans injecting carbon dioxide through the Mahomet Aquifer, labeled by the U.S. EPA as the area’s only sole-source aquifer. And it would mandate halts in sequestration if certain magnitudes of seismic activity are detected.
The bill would require the state to study appropriate setbacks from residences, businesses and infrastructure to protect from harm if a pipeline ruptures or leaks. Little or no government guidance or regulation currently exists on carbon dioxide pipeline setbacks, advocates note.
“There is not any federal law, any state law, nothing right now that says you cannot be located ‘x’ distance from people’s homes, schools, daycares,” said Jenny Cassel, an Earthjustice senior attorney involved in drafting the bill. “The problem is the federal government is never going to do it, because local zoning is not part of their purview.”
Pam Richart, a central Illinois resident and co-founder of the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines, added that, “The proposed legislation would demand the state study setbacks based on how carbon dioxide behaves. If it were to rupture, where would it go?”
Cassel explained that once the study is done, the Illinois EPA would be tasked with developing routing standards and modeling criteria that a company must follow when applying for a pipeline route permit. Currently, no such requirement for a permit exists. Pipelines must receive a certificate of authority from the Illinois Commerce Commission, but the commission focuses largely on whether the pipeline would be in the public benefit.
“As long as we have this tax incentive that is dangling money in front of these companies, until they have a clear set of protections that makes them think twice about whether it really is worth it, or until the state of Illinois says ‘We’re not willing to take this risk,’” proposals will continue, Cassel said.
The legislation goes beyond similar bills introduced last year and would mandate extensive research and state permitting be done before a company can apply to the Illinois Commerce Commission for a certificate.
Currently there are no requirements that companies create or release models showing how a carbon dioxide plume would likely spread in case of a rupture. The new bill would require such modeling for a necessary Illinois EPA permit. And it would mandate companies put up funds for future cleanup and maintenance of sequestration sites.
“Industry is trying to hand the keys to the state as soon as they’re done and say, ‘Good luck with that,’” Cassel said. “We think Illinois already has enough Superfund sites, mines, wells, all sorts of other environmental hazards that need to be reclaimed. We need to set aside real cash to address if something goes wrong.”
She stressed that unlike in other geologies, carbon dioxide will likely remain gaseous and unstable in the state’s sandstone formation. This could especially be a concern if new injection wells are added for expanded sequestration, she said.
“The more you mess with an underground formation, the more you’re creating the possibility the plume is going to be shifted underground,” Cassel said. “If you change pressure over here, there’s a decrease in pressure in the same underground formation. It’s not like you can count on the pressure remaining the same over time.”
In recent years, companies including One Earth and Navigator have applied for pipeline permits without having secured rights for a place to sequester the carbon dioxide.
Obtaining necessary permission from landowners and local county boards has proved difficult. Navigator offered to pay county boards for help facilitating their sequestration applications, but multiple boards turned them down.
The state’s Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group representing ethanol producers, did not respond to requests for comment. One Earth Energy also did not respond.
“Industry needs legislation,” said Richart. “They can’t move forward without addressing the regulatory gaps that exist for ownership and utilization of pore space.”
In 2011, Illinois passed a law to facilitate the construction of carbon dioxide pipelines and sequestration, and specifically to facilitate the proposed FutureGen project, a multibillion-dollar effort to store carbon dioxide underground at the site of a Meredosia, Illinois, coal plant.
That law says in part: “carbon dioxide pipelines are critical to the promotion and use of Illinois coal,” and are “a benefit to the welfare of Illinois.”
The FutureGen project died in 2015, but the law continues to be the only specific state guidance on carbon dioxide sequestration and transport.
The pipelines recently proposed in the state are primarily linked to ethanol plants. But carbon dioxide pipelines are also increasingly likely to be proposed to sequester carbon dioxide from the production of “blue hydrogen” — made from natural gas — since the federal government is offering lucrative tax incentives for hydrogen and $1 billion for a Midwestern hydrogen hub.
Kathy Campbell, an audiologist and professor emeritus at Southern Illinois University, testified before the commerce commission regarding the proposed Wolf, Navigator and One Earth pipelines.
The Navigator pipeline would have passed right through Campbell’s land in central Illinois. Though that proposal was canceled in the wake of massive public opposition and skepticism from the commerce commission, Campbell feels this is only the beginning of a carbon dioxide rush.
“I won’t feel real comfortable until we get some legislation passed,” Campbell said. “We need our moratorium bill, and we need more study.”
Yet another Illinois bill (SB 2860), backed by the Illinois Farm Bureau, would prohibit the use of eminent domain to secure carbon dioxide pipeline rights of way. Illinois farmers are worried about their land being seized through eminent domain for pipelines.Industry players with interests in carbon dioxide transport and sequestration meanwhile are backing a bill (HB 0569) that would allow sequestration operators to use underground pore space even if landowners are opposed, while setting procedures for land access and compensation for damage to land.
OVERSIGHT: Hydrogen industry leaders and environmentalists expect the U.S. EPA to exclude hydrogen from its final power plant emissions rule, leaving carbon capture as the only option for gas plants looking to reduce emissions to meet the regulation. (E&E News)
FOSSIL FUELS:
PIPELINES: A major CO2 pipeline leak this month in Louisiana that took more than two hours to fix should raise “alarm bells” about the country’s readiness to expand the carbon capture industry, advocates say. (Guardian)
CLIMATE:
GRID:
WIND:
OIL & GAS:
OHIO: The death of Ohio’s former top utility regulator stokes a growing sense of urgency among plaintiffs and prosecutors to gather evidence and testimony in HB6 corruption cases before it’s lost to time. (Energy News Network)
EMISSIONS: U.S. EPA officials are reportedly mulling changes to a landmark power plant emissions rule first proposed a year ago and will likely give utilities more time to add carbon capture equipment to gas facilities. (E&E News)
ALSO: The U.S. Senate passes a bill that would invalidate a Transportation Department rule aimed at cutting highway emissions, though President Biden would veto the measure if it passes the House. (Politico)
CLIMATE:
GRID:
PIPELINES: The U.S. Justice Department weighs in on the Line 5 dispute for the first time, arguing that Enbridge has been trespassing on tribal land in Wisconsin but that a previous court order failed to consider all of the implications of shutting down the pipeline. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
OHIO: FirstEnergy made a previously unreported $1 million dark money gift to benefit the campaign of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s eventual running mate, who later worked to win support for the state’s power plant bailout legislation, according to newly revealed company emails. (Energy News Network/Floodlight)
HYDROGEN:
NUCLEAR:
COAL: Federal energy analysts believe April coal exports will be slashed by about a third because of the Port of Baltimore closure. (The Hill)
SOLAR: Residents in a rural Illinois village west of Chicago hope to overturn local restrictions on rooftop solar that were previously enacted because of aesthetic concerns. (Energy News Network)
.svg)
