Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently announced that $1 billion in stimulus funding was being targeted to restart the stalled FutureGen project.

This infusion of tax dollars will provide breathing room for the FutureGen project. Originally, FutureGen was to build a state of the art IGCC facility in Mattoon, IL. Synthetic natural gas from the facility would then be used to power a combined cycle generation plant. CO2 remaining after the gasification process would have been captured and stored underground in favorable Illinois geological sinks. Deep geology beneath the Meredosia site will not allow for carbon storage, however. Therefore, the Mattoon site is still being targeted for the physical sequestration of the CO2. A pipeline is expected to be built to transfer it from the Meredosia site.

Via the FACES Newsroom (7-27-10)

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement is holding a public “open house” at the Beckley Convention Center today from 3 p.m. – 9 p.m. to discuss potential changes to its already complex mining regulatory program.  A similar event will be held tomorrow – Wednesday, July 28 – in Morgantown at Mylan Park from 3 p.m. – 9 p.m.

Citizens for Recycling First (CFRF) has updated its information on the EPA and its stance on coal ash recycling. In a recent blog post, they describe how the EPA has quietly abandoned its support of, and participation in, the Coal Combustion Products Partnership (C²P²) program earlier this week with a small note at the top of the C²P² page.

On May 4th, 2010, EPA proposed the first-ever national rules to ensure the safe disposal and management of coal combustion residuals from coal-fired power plants. While EPA is engaged in the rulemaking process, the Agency has suspended active participation in the Coal Combustion Products Partnership. EPA continues to believe that beneficial use of coal combustion residuals, when performed properly and in a safe manner, is beneficial to the environment.

Citizens for Recycling First has a good explanation of how the EPA’s recent proposal on coal ash regulation still leaves the door wide open for a “hazardous” designation under Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).

So, it looks like we’re not done yet. The simple facts are that it’s not reasonable to designate something as “hazardous” and then expect that people will still want to use it in the construction of their offices, homes, schools, etc.

The science doesn’t support the hazardous designation; the push for a Subtitle C designation is based in politics and special interest pressure tactics. Worse, it will cause significant damage the economy, and the environment.

Text of Coal Combustion Residuals – Proposed Rule ~ http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/industrial/special/fossil/ccr-rule/ccr-rule-prop.pdf. For more information on the Coal Combustion Residuals – proposed rule, see the EPA’s website ~ http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/nonhaz/industrial/special/fossil/ccr-rule/index.htm

This Citizens for Recycling First blog post discusses the EPA’s clear support for the beneficial use and recycling of coal ash

EPA Supports Coal Ash Recycling While Issuing Regulatory Options

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials voiced strong support for recycling coal ash today as they formally announced that they are considering two approaches to regulating coal ash disposal.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 4, 2010

EPA Announces Plans to Regulate Coal Ash

Agency proposals would address risks of unsafe coal ash disposal, while supporting safe forms of beneficial use

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today is proposing the first-ever national rules to ensure the safe disposal and management of coal ash from coal-fired power plants.

Senator Inhofe, ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has just released a damning Senate report, titled “Consensus‟ Exposed: The CRU Controversy.” The just-released report reviews the leaked emails and documents from the East Anglia Climate Research Unit (and the associated “Climategate” issues). The report claims that,

CRU EMAILS SHOW SCIENTISTS

• Obstructing release of damaging data and information;
• Manipulating data to reach preconceived conclusions;
• Colluding to pressure journal editors who published work questioning the climate science ―consensus; and
• Assuming activist roles to influence the political process.

Stephen L. Paine, West Virginia’s superintendent of schools has an interesting column on the WBOY TV website. Reading through his comments gives each of us a good reminder of how many of our basic institutions rely on the clean, affordable, and abundant energy that coal provides.

But coal provides more than just energy. Our social sustainability also relies on the many thousands of jobs provided by mining, transportation, utilities, support services, as well as other indirect jobs. Coal also provides millions in royalties, severance taxes, business and income taxes, etc. As Paine notes, “coal was responsible for about 10 percent of (WVa) school budgets in 2009.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today released action plans developed by 22 electric utility facilities with coal ash impoundments, describing the measures the facilities are taking to make their impoundments safer. The action plans are a response to EPA’s assessment reports on the structural integrity of these impoundments that the agency made public last September. Coal ash was brought prominently to national attention in 2008 when an impoundment holding disposed ash waste generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority broke open, creating a massive spill in Kingston, TN, that covered millions of cubic yards of land and river and is regarded as one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in history. Shortly afterwards, EPA began overseeing the cleanup, as well as investigating the structural integrity of impoundments where ash waste is stored.

Received an email from the Office of Energy and Environmental Industries, Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, regarding an upcoming clean energy business development mission to China and Indonesia. The text of this email follows.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will lead a clean energy business development mission to China and Indonesia from May 15 to 25, 2010. U.S. companies interested in expanding export and market opportunities in the sectors of clean energy (including, but not limited to, energy efficiency, energy storage, transmission/distribution, smart grid, clean coal, air pollution control equipment, etc.) are encouraged to take part in the event. The application deadline is Friday, February 26. The details of the mission, including application procedures, are available at:
http://www.trade.gov/cleanenergymission/