03.24.22

Hoeven Working to Support Coal-Fired Electricity, Ensure Affordability & Reliability of the Grid

Senator Addresses Central Power Annual Meeting, Outlines Efforts to Push Back on President Biden’s Harmful Energy Agenda & to Advance CCUS

MINOT, N.D. – Senator John Hoeven today virtually addressed Central Power Electric Cooperative’s annual meeting, where he outlined the importance of maintaining America’s energy security. The senator further highlighted his efforts to ensure the U.S. can continue to harness all of its energy resources, including its abundant coal reserves, in order to ensure the affordability and reliability of the electric grid. To this end, Hoeven is:

  • Pushing back on the Biden administration’s harmful energy agenda.
  • Advancing efforts to crack the code on carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technologies.
    • This includes Hoeven’s efforts to secure and enhance the 45Q tax credit, an important revenue stream for CCUS projects.
  • Sponsoring legislation, along with Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.), to allow rural electric cooperatives and telecommunications providers to refinance their Rural Utilities Service (RUS) debt at lower interest rates, enabling them to better invest in rural communities and pass savings on to customers.

“President Biden is taking us in the wrong direction on energy development, imposing burdensome and costly regulations that reduce our ability to produce the energy we need here at home,” said Hoeven. “This not only contributes to record-high inflation but also undermines our energy security and the reliability of the grid. In an energy rich nation like ours, there is no reason for this situation to continue. That’s why we are pushing back on the Biden administration’s harmful agenda and working to maintain the regulatory relief we provided under the Trump administration, including for our coal-fired power plants. At the same time, we are advancing the commercially-viable implementation of CCUS technologies, which are key to leveraging our vast energy reserves while maintaining access to low-cost, dependable energy with good environmental stewardship.” 

Pushing Back on Harmful Energy Agenda

Hoeven is working to prevent the Biden administration from imposing burdensome regulations that will hamper U.S. domestic energy production, cause higher inflation and lead to increased costs for consumers. His efforts include:

  • Sponsoring legislation to prohibit the president from issuing moratoria on leasing and permitting for energy and mineral resources, including coal, on federal lands.
  • Supporting a legal challenge against the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) efforts to issue burdensome, sector-wide regulations that force states to change their fuel sources for electricity generation.

Cracking the Code on CCUS

Hoeven is advancing the following priorities to crack the code on CCUS, which will enable the nation to continue making use of its abundant energy resources: 

  • Front end investment in technology development, including bolstering the partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the University of North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC).
    • Hoeven has secured $43 million in federal funding for Project Tundra to date.
  • Loan guarantees at DOE and RUS to help project developers secure financing to build the equipment and infrastructure needed to capture and store CO2.
  • Enhancements for the 45Q and 48A Advanced Coal tax credits to provide important revenue streams to project developers and encourage adoption of CCUS, including:
    • Sponsoring legislation to modernize the 48A tax credit for CO2 capture retrofit projects.
    • Helping introduce a bipartisan bill to provide a direct payment option for the 45Q and 48A CCUS tax incentives.
    • Joining legislation to increase the value of the 45Q tax credit and make it more accessible to CCUS projects of all sizes. 

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