08.09.17

Hoeven: CCS Will Help Shape Nation's Energy Future

Senator Hosts EPA Administrator at EERC, Advancing Regulatory Certainty & Funding for CCS Projects

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven today hosted Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for a tour and energy roundtable at the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota (UND). Hoeven stressed the potential benefits for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) to reduce emissions for both traditional and renewable energy sources. 

“The efforts of the EERC are vital to ensuring the energy security of our nation,” Hoeven said. “By providing a commercially-viable path forward for coal as a part of our nation’s energy mix, the technologies being developed here will help deliver affordable and reliable energy for our nation’s businesses and families. Further, CCS can also reduce emissions for renewable energy like biofuels, allowing North Dakota products to be sold in more markets like states on the West Coast. It’s important that Administrator Pruitt understand the implications of these local efforts as he works to improve our nation’s regulatory environment, and I will continue working with him to do just that.”

Today’s roundtable with Pruitt is part of Hoeven’s ongoing efforts to provide regulatory certainty and funding for EERC and North Dakota’s energy industry to help develop and deploy CCS technology:

REGULATORY CERTAINTY

State Regulatory Primacy – Hoeven recently secured approval from the EPA for North Dakota’s application for regulatory primacy over Class VI injection wells, which are used for the geologic or long-term storage of CO2. The senator had been urging Pruitt to advance the application since the time of his nomination earlier this year. The first-in-the-nation approval provides certainty for energy producers and makes CCS technology more economically feasible. 

CO2 Regulatory Certainty Act – This month, Hoeven reintroduced his CO2 Regulatory Certainty Act. The senator’s bill aligns tax guidelines with existing federal regulations at the EPA to ensure CCS project developers can use the Section 45Q tax credit.

Rescinding Burdensome Regulations – In March, Hoeven joined the president as he signed an executive order to stop the EPA’s costly rules for new and existing coal generating power plants and to begin the process of rolling back the regulations. In the last Congress, Hoeven cosponsored and the Senate passed two resolutions to repeal the regulations, which President Obama subsequently vetoed.

CCS FUNDING

Hoeven continues his efforts to support the development of commercially-viable clean coal technologies, including Project Tundra and the Allam Cycle. As a member of the Senate Energy and Energy Appropriations Committees, the senator worked to ensure the Senate’s Fiscal Year 2018 energy funding bill rejected the administration’s proposed cuts to CCS programs. Hoeven also secured a commitment from Energy Secretary Rick Perry earlier this year to support CCS pilot and demonstration projects and continues working to ensure the final appropriations measure provides adequate funding.

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