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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