Monday, March 30, 2009
Chu Entertains FutureGen Alliance
Energy Secretary Steven Chu meets with proponents of a troubled clean-carbon project.
By Peter Fairley
FutureGen's carbon-free coal vision may soon be more than a clean dream
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Potential Energy has learned that Energy Secretary Steven Chu met with representatives of the FutureGen Alliance today, reinforcing positive signals from Chu two weeks ago that the troubled project could be revived. The public-private partnership to prove the integration of coal gasification, carbon capture, and sequestration technologies was killed by the Bush Administration in January 2008 using what Congressional investigators have shown to be specious accounting.
In an email to TechReview today, Department of Energy press secretary Stephanie Mueller confirms that Chu and the Alliance had a "good discussion" and that the Secretary Chu "believes that the FutureGen proposal has real merit":
Secretary Chu believes that investment in carbon capture and storage research and development is critical to meeting our energy and climate change challenges. Unfortunately, the prior Administration simply walked away from FutureGen after years of work ... In the coming weeks, the Department will be working with the Alliance and members of Congress to strengthen the proposal and try to reach agreement on a path forward.
Michael Mudd, FutureGen Alliance chief executive, struck a confident tone after the meeting about the prospects for reviving the project. "It is not certain but I think it is highly likely. We have a vehicle for funding it through the stimulus package. We have interest of the Obama Administration in seeing this go through. There's growing interest in reducing CO2 emissions. All of the aspects are there pointing towards [reviving the project]," says Mudd.
One attraction of the project is that it is more "shovel ready" than average--particularly for a capital-intensive energy installation. An environmental impact statement already issued under the Bush Administration, and a Record of Decision (ROD) from DOE formally approving the project seems to be in the works. "Step one is for new sec of energy to issue the ROD. With that we can do a detailed design and start procurement. If that happens quickly we can begin the heavy construction next year, and even some light construction this year," says Mudd. The plant could actually start up in as little as three years from now, with "90% carbon capture and sequestration from Day One," according to Mudd.
Which would be just in time for Obama's re-election campaign.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Comments
jpm1u
03/31/2009
Posts:13
Just look at the ethanol scam. Because of the hype from venture capitalists, who somehow thought ethanol was the way out of oil dependence, it got distorted by corn producers who looked at it and came to the conclusion- "works for us". They then greased the political wheels with lobbyist campaign funding and wha-la, Ethanol is part of the energy, environment and climate solution. The ignorant public bought it up and the driveby media wailed it as a solution for everyone and the green economy. What a joke. Even Popular Science got carried away, but how many times has that publication got carried away with future technology?
I don't see any one technology as top dog except nuclear. It will take various technologies over decades of R&D to show where the top dog winners are. Wind and solar are just euphemistic technologies as they seem to be free and viable. People just don't presently see past the hype that their much more behind the bling technological problems to be solved before wind and solar become more then supplemental energy on any real measurable scale.
Just look how the oil price blame continually gets dumped on the oil and gas producers. People just don't see what tit takes to produce and transport the stuff. There's plenty of oil and gas but unfortunately much of it is in other counties and places and much of it takes more expensive, sophisticated technology to extract. And you have terrorism and geopolitical problems associated with it too. The logistics are mind boggling.
Scottar
05/21/2009
Posts:15