DOE panel urges faster OKs for coal plants

Washington (Platts)--1May2007

A draft report from the National Coal Council may recommend that Energy
Secretary Samuel Bodman dramatically shorten the permitting process for the
construction of advanced coal-fired power plants, Platts has learned. If the
permitting time is shortened, the authors believe more advanced clean coal
plants will be built.

The draft also said coal-to-liquid fuels should be viewed as a "viable
substitute for imported oil and natural gas," with the possibility of CTL
fuels becoming more important if oil prices remain high. It may also recommend
that utilities reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by making their
generating facilities more energy-efficient, and the draft advocates
"eliminating" the federal New Source Review program, a provision of the Clean
Air Act that requires electric utilities to install state-of-the-art pollution
controls when undertaking certain modifications.

The panel may also put several other controversial policy recommendations on
Bodman's desk, including the elimination of a major regulatory scheme for
power-plant emissions, according to documents obtained by Platts.

The recommendations are outlined in a yet-to-be-published report that Platts
obtained last week. The 161-page tome was crafted by the National Coal
Council, a federal advisory committee that counsels the energy secretary on
matters pertaining to coal. The draft report is dated April 26, 2007, while
the final document is not expected to be made public until June 7 at the next
meeting of the full National Coal Council.

In responding to questions about the draft report, NCC Executive Director
Robert Beck in an e-mail over the weekend said the report is still in the
draft stage and therefore, subject to change. Many of the scientists who
contributed to it are still debating the content, and recommendations may
change as well.

The report is responding to a request from Bodman last year that the council
study the development of technologies for capturing and storing carbon dioxide
emissions from coal-fired electric utilities. Specifically, Bodman asked the
council for a "recommended technology-based framework for mitigating
greenhouse gas emissions from those plants," the council recalled in its
report.

--Brian Hansen, brian_hansen@platts.com