Carbon allowances should be limited to coal units: US Senate aide
Washington (Platts)--10May2005
The Republican counsel for the US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Tuesday said freely allocated emissions rights that can be bought and sold should be restricted to coal-fired power plants. Speaking at an Alliance to Save Energy meeting in Washington, John Shanahan said giving emissions allowances to nuclear power plants and renewable energy sources, which are inherently emissions free, would be like "giving radioactive waste storage permits to coal plants." Shanahan's position differs from that of Michael Wilson, a vice president for Florida Power & Light, who said at the meeting that utilities that have made investments in nuclear energy and solar and wind energy should be rewarded with allowances. Shanahan's position also clashes with that of Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (Republican-New Mexico), a long-time supporter of giving nuclear power plants emissions allowances. While Shanahan argued that a carbon trading program would be too costly for industry, Lee Lane, executive director of the Climate Change Center, said he favors a carbon-trading plan that would direct proceeds toward new r&d. "Existing ideas have no real impact," Lane said of the Kyoto Protocol and other policy measures under consideration. "What will have a significant impact is the development of radically new technologies." This story was originally published in Platts Electricity Alert http://www.electricityalert.platts.com
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