US clean coal initiative loses another partner

摘要

Citing uncertain economic conditions and a hazy regulatory outlook, a North Dakota utility has become the latest company to withdraw from the US Department of Energy's Clean Coal Power Initiative. North Dakota's Basin Electric Power Cooperative turned down a $100 million DOE grant to support a CO2 capture demonstration, becoming the eighth company to leave the CCPI. Despite those defections, the DOE said it remains committed to the project, but is pointedly signaling to lawmakers that the long-term viability of carbon capture and sequestration technology, long touted by the coal industry as a means of making power plants cleaner, will depend on Congress getting serious about climate change.