05.25.18

Hoeven: Senate Appropriations Committee Advances Funding for Coal CCS Technologies

Senator Worked to Include Support for Research Efforts like Project Tundra, Allam Cycle & EERC’s Cooperative Agreement with DOE

WASHINGTON – Senator John Hoeven, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Energy and Water, today announced that the Appropriations Committee has advanced legislation that maintains strong support for breakthrough energy research conducted in North Dakota and across the nation. Among other things, Hoeven worked to ensure the bill, which would set the funding levels at the Department of Energy (DOE) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019, included the following priorities:

  • $30 million for a new competitive grant to support the development of commercial-scale carbon capture technology to be retrofitted on an existing power plant. The next phase of Project Tundra would be eligible for funding.
  • $25 million to develop supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) technologies for coal and natural gas plants like the Allam Cycle.
  • Increased funding for DOE’s carbon capture and carbon storage research programs.
  • A provision supporting DOE’s cooperative agreements with institutions like Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) in Grand Forks. 

“This funding will help advance cutting-edge technologies, like Project Tundra and the Allam Cycle, that will help our nation to continue to make use of all of its energy resources,” said Hoeven. “North Dakota is a leader in these CCS efforts, and we’re working to support the innovative work of our energy industry. Doing so will help provide affordable and reliable energy for families and businesses and good-paying jobs for workers.”

Project Tundra is being developed by Allete Clean Energy, Minnkota Power and BNI Coal in partnership with EERC. The Allam Cycle is being developed by EERC, Basin Electric and Allete Inc. 

These funding provisions are part of Hoeven’s continued efforts to support the development of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) to empower greater energy production with better environmental stewardship. To this end, Hoeven is advancing his CO2 Regulatory Certainty Act, legislation that aligns tax guidelines with existing federal regulations at the EPA to ensure CCS project developers can use the Section 45Q tax credit, as well as his legislation to extend the refined coal tax credit.

Hoeven also recently secured the final approval for North Dakota’s regulatory primacy over Class VI injection wells, which are used for the geologic, long-term storage of CO2. This is the first such approval in the nation and will help advance CCS projects across the state. Hoeven has led this effort since establishing the North Dakota CO2 Storage Workgroup in 2008 and has continued to advance the state’s application with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) throughout his time in the Senate, having secured a proposed rule to grant the authority last year. 

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