LOS ANGELES, May 18, 2009 -- Xinhua


A plan to build the "cleanest and greenest" power plant near Los Angeles has been abandoned due to opposition by environmentalists, according to a newspaper report on Monday.

The 1-billion-dollar project in Carson, a South Los Angeles suburb, would have been an early test of carbon-capture technology, in which carbon dioxide emissions are permanently stored underground, according to local newspaper the Daily Breeze.

It was billed as the "cleanest and greenest" power plant when plans for construction were announced in 2006.

But the companies involved in the project said they encountered opposition from environmentalists. The project exposed a rift between some environmentalists who say that carbon-capture technology poses risks to surrounding communities and those who say it is essential to mitigating climate change.

BP America teamed up with Edison International to build the project. It would have used leftover petroleum coke from a nearby refinery to generate electricity, while resulting carbon dioxide would be sold to Occidental Petroleum, which would pump it into the ground to improve oil recovery.

Companies said the local geology also turned out to be inhospitable. A spokeswoman for Occidental Petroleum said that its geologists determined that the Wilmington Field was not amenable to a flood of carbon dioxide.

BP and Occidental have since announced plans to develop a similar project in Kern County, which is California's top oil- producing county. The new project would generate about half as much electricity as the initial proposal, according to the newspaper.

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