On June 12, Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Air Quality, introduced legislation to accelerate the availability of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, entitled the Carbon Capture and Storage Early Deployment Act. The bill, which has bipartisan support, would advance efforts to develop the technology to capture and inject carbon dioxide emitted from electricity generation plants into underground reservoirs.
The bill would establish a $1 billion annual fund, which would be collected from fees on the generation of electricity from coal, oil and natural gas to provide grants to large-scale projects that would advance the commercial availability of CCS. The bill would also give the owners of qualified industries organizations the option to decide if they want to create a "Carbon Storage Research Corporation," which would operate as an affiliate of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and be tasked primarily with issuing grants and contracts (from the $1 billion annual fund) to private, academic and governmental entities with the purpose of accelerating the commercial demonstration or availability of carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies.
Boucher does not view this as a substitute for a cap-and-trade program; rather as a needed first step before implementing such a program. In a press release, Boucher said that "Coal is America's most abundant domestic fuel, and today, coal accounts for more than one-half of the fuel used for electricity generation...preservation of the ability of electric utilities to continue coal use is essential. The legislation introduced today addresses this clear need by enabling electric utilities that use coal to have the continued ability to do so when a mandatory program is implemented to control greenhouse gas emissions."
The legislation has been endorsed by many industrial organizations, including the United Mine Workers of America, Duke Energy, and the Salt River Project, among others.