Washington (Platts)--23May2008

House Republicans led by Representative Joe Barton of Texas offered a
legislation package on Thursday that includes loan guarantees for up to six
coal-to-liquid facilities that capture and store carbon dioxide emissions.

"This is a package for American-made energy for American jobs and the American
economy," Barton said. "These bills touch every portion of the energy sector,
and whatever it takes to get them to the House floor, we're for, because we
want energy prices down."

The Coal Liquid Fuel Act (H.R. 2208) was first introduced last year by House
Democratic Representatives Rick Boucher, Virginia, and John Shimkus, Illinois
(PCT 5/08/07). The measure states that if the price of crude oil falls to an
agreed-upon price of about $40 per barrel, the federal government would make a
payment to the CTL plant owner. If it goes above the agreed-upon price, the
CTL owner would make a payment to the federal government. The price of crude
oil was roughly $133/barrel on Thursday.

Of the six CTL projects that the bill would support, one would be a petroleum
coke facility and another would be jointly or partly owned by two or more
small coal producers.

The package also includes a bill repealing a ban on the use of CTL, oil sands
and shale oil. Section 526 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
prohibits a federal agency from entering into a contract to buy alternative or
synthetic fuel, unless the contract specifies that the lifecycle greenhouse
gas emissions associated with the production and combustion of the fuel is
less than or equal to petroleum.

The rest of the legislative package focuses on the development of oil shale
resources, extending renewable energy tax credits, refinery development and
building the next-generation nuclear labor force.