Washington (Platts)--6Jun2007

The US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Wednesday
unanimously passed a bill providing grants for carbon capture and storage
demonstration projects including one at the coal-fired power plant that serves
Congress.              

     The panel, chaired by Barbara Boxer, Democrat-California, approved the
proposal, S. 1523, to amend the Clean Air Act to create a "Capitol Power Plant
CO2 Emissions Demonstration Program." Carbon capture and storage is likely to
be included in a federal greenhouse gas cap-and-trade program.

     The legislation, authored by Boxer and Senator Lamar Alexander, 
Republican-Tennessee, authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to set up
a $3-million competitive grants program for technologies "designed to reduce
or eliminate the emissions of CO2" at a scale "not less than five times the
size of the proposed project" at the Capitol plant. The plant was built in
1910.

     "Capitol Power Plant offers an excellent opportunity to test these CO2
technologies," Boxer said during consideration of S. 1523. "I think it's a
win-win for everyone."

     The legislation "falls into the category of practicing what we preach,"
Alexander said. He said the plant "accounts for about one third of the CO2
Congress produces." 

     In awarding the grants, EPA must consider: whether proposed projects use
CO2 to help improve production of transportation fuels and other benefits and
whether they can reduce non-CO2 pollutants, according to the legislation.

     Senator James Inhofe, Republican-Oklahoma, withheld a proposal to change
the CCS bill to add a "coal-to-liquids" program to boost petroleum production
using the power-plant fuel. 

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