While Congress looks for ways to reduce carbon emission from electric power generation, the Administration’s funding request does not provide the funding needed to significantly accelerate research on technologies to reduce CO2 emissions from coal-based power generation.

According to preliminary information released by the Department of Energy, the FY09 budget request to be submitted by President Bush next week includes $407 million for coal research – including development of more efficient gasification and turbine technologies, innovations for existing coal power plants, and large-scale CCS injection tests – and $241 million to demonstrate technologies for cost-effective carbon capture and storage for coal-fired power plants.

While this $648 million request represents a $129 million increase from the President’s FY2008 request, NRECA believes this funding level is inadequate. In a joint letter to Jim Nussle, director of the Office of Management and Budget, NRECA called on the Administration to increase the proposed funding level to $900 million.

“Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is the critical enabling technology that has the potential to significantly reduce CO 2 emissions while also allowing coal to meet the world’s pressing energy needs. If CCS technology is the means by which we anticipate the continued use of our abundant coal reserves to produce low cost electricity, the partnership between government and industry to jointly develop viable CCS technologies has never been more important.”

“The Coal Utilization Research Council (CURC) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) estimate that, by 2025, with sufficient and focused research, development and demonstration identified in the CURC-EPRI Technology Roadmap, combustion and gasification-based power generation options can be available commercially – with the ability to capture and sequester CO2 – at a cost of electricity comparable to the cost of new power generation (without CO2 capture) today.”

The letter was also signed by the American Public Power Association, the Coal Utilization Research Council, Edison Electric Institute, the National Mining Association, and United Mine Workers of America.

See “Related Links” for full text of the letter.