Fossil fuels get early benefits from climate change initiativeJul 3 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Jennifer A. Dlouhy Houston ChronicleWhen President Barack Obama unveiled a broad plan for combating climate change last week, few observers would have predicted one of his administration's first steps would be aimed at giving a boost to fossil fuels. But on Tuesday, the Obama administration launched a process to award $8 billion in loan guarantees for cleaning up the extraction and burning of coal, oil and natural gas. In issuing a draft solicitation for the fossil fuel loan guarantees, the Energy Department essentially revived a program that hasn't been tapped since it was authorized eight years ago. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said the government's plan is to open the program up to a wide range of fossil fuels and technologies -- with the goal of paring heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions from the oil, gas and coal that power the U.S. today. "As we develop the transformational technologies of the very low- carbon future of tomorrow, we also have to innovate around today's energy," Moniz told reporters on a conference call outlining the plan. "We are trying to prepare the way for all these different technologies to be market competitors as we go to a low-carbon economy." The Energy Department's proposal would include initiatives that could capture carbon dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants as well as from upstream projects for extracting natural gas and oil. Noting that the development and extraction of oil, gas and coal accounts for 5 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, the Energy Department said "new or significantly improved technologies" could help shrink their carbon footprint. Another targeted area is energy efficiency, with loan guarantees potentially available for combined heat and power projects and initiatives to recover and use waste heat at industrial facilities. The Energy Department in 2008 issued a much smaller draft loan guarantee solicitation for the fossil fuel program that was aimed almost exclusively at carbon capture and storage. In broadening the potential projects that would qualify for support, the Energy Department could win support from oil and gas advocates, but simultaneously anger coal backers who see carbon capture as essential to extending the lifespan of the fuel amid new limits on greenhouse gas emissions. The initiative also is expected to draw criticism from environmentalists who say any support for fossil fuels undermines a broader move toward low-carbon and renewable alternatives. Moniz had a pragmatic response to the expected argument. "Fossil fuels currently provide more than 80 percent of our energy," he said. "Adopting technologies to use them cleanly and more efficiently is critical to our all-of-the-above approach." http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=29182125 |