CCUS Development About to “Turn the Corner,” Clean Coal Chief Says
By Abby Harvey, GHG Daily Monitor
With three large-scale projects months from operation in the U.S. and a recent reprioritization in the Department of Energy’s coal office, carbon capture utilization and storage is about to have its moment, David Mohler, deputy assistant secretary for clean coal and carbon management within the DOE Office of Fossil Energy, said Thursday. “I think we’re at a pretty pivotal time,” he said during a presentation at the U.S. Energy Association’s Annual Energy Supply Forum. “I think we’re about to turn the corner for CCUS.”
Declining coal use in the U.S., Mohler said, is not a reason to ignore developing CCS technology for coal generation. “Carbon capture is a domestic and global necessity,” he said. “There are voices in this country, and in Washington in particular, that talk about why we don’t we just leave all the fossil fuels in the ground and let’s just do it all with renewables and energy efficiency.”
Even if the U.S. stopped burning fossil fuels, he added, other nations, particularly developing countries that are prioritizing bringing electricity to their citizens, will not leave their fossil fuels in the ground. “There’s a real challenge here globally, not the least of which, in my opinion, is can the U.S. lead here? Can we develop the technologies that are going to be globally useful and actually take those technologies into the global market with some competitive advantage?” he said.