CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE

OVERVIEW

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) traps carbon dioxide from fossil fuel power plants or industrial plants and then transports captured carbon dioxide by pipeline to underground storage. Recent regulatory developments have brought attention to this emerging technology. Future legal challenges notwithstanding,¹ EPA’s 2013 New Source Performance Standards (NSPS)² will encourage new coal plants to adopt CCS technology. Adopting CCS lets the U.S. continue to take advantage of its domestic coal and natural gas resources, keeps more fossil fuel power plants open, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. But smoothing the regulatory road and making the necessary investments to get there remain major challenges.

ANALYSIS

In 2011, the U.S. had eight large power plant CCS projects in the works. Three years later, only five continue towards operation,³ due to high and rising construction costs, an unclear ability to recover operating costs, the uncertain regulatory future, and the lack of a national energy plan.⁴

It is more expensive both to build and operate a CCS plant than an ordinary coal power plant. The very first CCS power projects are designed for coal plants. Analysts estimate a large, new conventional coal power plant costs $ 2.2 billion,⁵ while an equivalent CCS coal power plant costs 60-80% more.⁶ In addition, because a CCS plant captures emitted CO₂, it is more expensive to operate.⁷ CCS proponents believe exploiting potential CO₂ revenue streams could reduce the added cost to 10-20% for plants that capture half of emitted CO₂.⁸ Future experience constructing CCS plants will lower costs,⁹ while ongoing R&D efforts may yield cheaper carbon dioxide capture techniques.¹⁰

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a mature technology that offers CCS plants an ability to recover operating costs.¹¹ Instead of directing CO₂ straight into underground storage, oil field operators buy CO₂ and pump it underground into an oil field to increase production. This additional revenue stream lowers the cost gap between CCS and ordinary fossil fuel power. However, 80% of EOR CO₂ currently comes mined from natural sources.¹² In addition, the market value of mined CO₂ is currently far lower than the cost for a power plant to capture CO₂. Nevertheless, there is proven potential both to store large amounts of carbon emissions and recover a significant amount of oil with the captured carbon.

The EOR industry has injected CO₂ into oil wells for decades using a Safe Drinking Water Act permitting program.¹³ Now, federal and state governments are beginning to set up legal frameworks specific to carbon storage, but unresolved issues remain.¹⁴ Although new permitting processes commonly experience delays, the operator of the first project to file under the new CO₂-specific rule is still waiting for an injection permit, more than 30 months after applying.¹⁵ Moreover, federal rules assign indefinite liability for eventual CO₂ leakage to the project operator.¹⁶ Because companies may not exist for hundreds of years, this will be impractical in the long term.

Moreover, because most plants are not and would not be built on or near underground storage facilities, they would need a build-out of CO₂ pipeline transportation networks. The U.S. has 4,000 miles of CO₂ pipelines, built to carry mined CO₂ to oil fields for EOR. These run mainly from the Rockies to Texas, as well as from Mississippi to Louisiana.¹⁷ Whether destined for storage alone or EOR operations, sequestered CO₂ emissions from other regions will require hundreds, if not thousands, of miles of new pipelines, at significant cost.

IMPLEMENTATION

To continue developing CCS, the U.S. should focus on policies that enhance economic incentives to invest in capturing, using, and storing carbon dioxide.

Revise the Tax Credit for EOR Operations

Congress should amend the §45Q tax credit to make it easier and more attractive to use captured CO₂ for EOR operations. The revised tax credit should achieve cost parity, making it as attractive for EOR operators to purchase CO₂ from CCS projects as from natural wells.¹⁸ Modifications should improve transparency in credit registration and allocation, as well as make it easier to transfer credits. If these changes are made, modeling analysis shows this proposal will generate federal revenue over the course of a decade, as it enhances U.S. oil production.¹⁹

Start Permitting Federal Lands for Carbon Storage

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) should begin to pre-permit federal land for carbon storage. As a starting point, the United States Geological Survey recently identified suitable basins for storing carbon dioxide.²⁰ Previously, BLM has issued programmatic environmental impact statements for wind, geothermal and solar energy, which have significantly streamlined the often time-consuming environmental reviews.²¹ Building upon this precedent, BLM can pave the way to expedite CO₂ storage permitting by conducting comprehensive impact statement and guiding developers through applications for a few specific injection sites on its land. As a further incentive, BLM can allow these projects to inject CO₂ without collecting royalties for a limited number of years.

Allow EOR Operations to Continue Current Injection Permitting Processes

EPA should clarify that EOR operations can continue permitting CO₂ injection according to current practices that have been in place for decades. EPA recently directed some EOR projects to file for the new CO₂-specific permit.²² As the possibility of having to re-permit wells may make oil field developers wary of buying captured CO₂,²³ new EPA regulations could stifle the emerging CCS-EOR industry. Similarly, while EPA has directed pilot projects to file for the new CO₂-specific injection permits,²⁴ the Agency should allow these to continue using experimental well class designations.

Create a Geologic Sequestration Trust Fund

Congress should create a carbon storage trust fund to provide backup financing for the 50 years after injection is finished but for which continual monitoring is still required. Small companies may have difficulty securing financial proof they can monitor a site or compensate damages for 50 years. While initial government funding would start the trust fund, private funding would replace this as more CCS companies pay into the trust. As a whole, the trust fund would allow Congress to foster more entrepreneurial ventures in CCS.

Make CO₂ Capture Eligible for Master Limited Partnerships

As proposed by Sen. Coons, Congress should pass legislation that extends Master Limited Partnerships to CO₂ capture and related electricity generation projects, which would open up cheaper and earlier financing options. Master Limited Partnerships are addressed in the PowerBook’s Finance Component.