Thermal efficiency mandate dropped from comprehensive energy bill

Washington (Platts)--13Apr2005

The US House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee voted on the
coal title of the comprehensive energy bill in quick order Wednesday. Only two
amendments were discussed. 

The first came from Reps Rick Boucher (Democrat-Virginia) and Ed Whitfield
(Republican-Kentucky) on the separation and capture of carbon dioxide. They
wanted to make sure that, within the Clean Coal Power Initiative, thermal
efficiency goals do not apply to projects that separate and capture at least
50% of their CO2 emissions. The amendment was passed. "This is an important
step forward [for the Clean Coal Technology provision of the energy bill] in
using more coal at a time when natural gas prices are so high," Whitfield
said. 

Rep Ted Strickland (Democrat-Ohio) had talked about an amendment concerning
advance permitting of integrated gasification combined-cycle plants, but it
was not offered to the committee for action. The committee continued the
markup with a discussion of the nuclear power portion of the bill.

This story was originally published in Platts Electricity Alert
http://www.electricityalert.platts.com

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