05.03.24

Hoeven Secures Over $5 Million For CO2 Sequestration & Monitoring at Largest Coal-Based CCUS Project in The World

Senator Pushing Back on Unworkable EPA Mandates to Ensure Access to Baseload Power, Outlines EERC-DGC Project

GRAND FORKS, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven today announced a $5.1 million award to advance carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) monitoring at the Great Plains Synfuels Plant. The monitoring and sequestration project, which is being led by the Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC), is key to the development of commercially-viable CCUS. Further, the project will advance the expansion of CCUS at the Dakota Gasification Company’s (DGC) Great Plains Synfuels Plant, which would make the facility the largest coal-based CCUS project utilizing geologic storage in the world and the first project in the U.S. to utilize both enhanced oil recovery and geologic storage. 

Today’s award comes as part of Hoeven’s broader efforts to ensure continued access to affordable and reliable baseload power sources, like coal. To this end, Hoeven is pushing back against costly, burdensome rules being advanced by the Biden administration, including the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS) rule and the Clean Power Plan 2.0:

  • Hoeven is leading a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution of disapproval to stop the Biden administration’s final MATS rule.
  • Hoeven raised these issues at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing this week with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan.
    • The senator pressed Regan to rescind unworkable mandates that are not technically or commercially feasible.
    • Hoeven stressed that such overreaches undermine investments like those being made by DGC, Minnkota Power and Rainbow Energy.

“This $5.1 million award is a crucial investment in the future of CCUS and baseload power. Under this project, EERC is developing cost-effective methods for monitoring and verifying CO2 storage. That’s key not only to the DGC project, which is the largest of its kind in the world, but to all of the coal-based CCUS projects across our state,” said Hoeven. “This is about ensuring the affordability and reliability of the grid, but these investments can’t come to fruition if the Biden administration continues to attack our baseload power sources, like coal. The unworkable mandates being pushed by the EPA, like the MATS rule, directly harm our ability to develop and implement commercially-viable CCUS, which not only would benefit the U.S., but could help improve environmental stewardship around the world. Such federal overreaches defy common sense, and we will continue to push back on them.”

DGC CO2 Sequestration & Monitoring Project

Under this award, EERC will evaluate technologies to improve, and reduce the cost of, the monitoring and verification of CO2 sequestered using geologic storage. Doing so will better enable project developers to utilize the 45Q tax credit, one of the most important incentives for CCUS projects. Today’s funding comes in addition to $1.4 million that Hoeven previously secured for the initial monitoring project, bringing the total funding to $6.5 million. As a member of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Committee, Hoeven:

  • Worked to fund and advance the awards under the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) longstanding cooperative agreement with EERC.
  • Repeatedly raised the priority with DOE officials, including the Secretary of Energy.
  • Stressed the importance of providing this latest award in a timely manner to ensure EERC can use and build upon the baseline data gathered to date.

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