John Kerry: With New Legislation, Kerry Pushes Carbon Sequestration Technology

Kerry Chairs Hearing on New Technologies to Aid in Fight Against Global Climate Change

11/07/2007 -- WASHINGTON D.C. – Senator John Kerry, chair of the Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Innovation today held a hearing on carbon sequestration, and introduced a bill to help develop a new generation of this most promising environmentally friendly technology.

“If the United States continues to turn a blind eye to dangerous emissions, we will be forced to climb an even steeper hill in battling global climate change,” said Senator John Kerry. “Carbon capture and storage technologies hold enormous potential to reduce our emissions as we power our economy. This legislation and today’s hearing offer a chance to embrace smart solutions the American way: by harnessing technology to help combat the climate change threat.”

Kerry’s bill will:

Establish 3-5 commercial-scale sequestration facilities
Establish 3-5 “first-of-a-kind” coal-fired demonstration plants with carbon capture
Establish an interagency process to determine a regulatory framework for CCS
Direct USGS to perform a capacity assessment of sequestration potential; establish an aggressive CCS R&D program at DOE
Authorize technology sharing agreements with China, India and other coal-intensive developing countries.

The hearing today is one of a series of hearings in this subcommittee on the climate change challenge. In April, the committee held a hearing on clean coal and carbon capture, and today the committee is exploring the sequestration issue. The committee intends to hold a hearing on the issue of gasification and carbon capture technologies sometime early next year.

Today’s Witnesses:

Dr. Howard Herzog, Author of the MIT Future of Coal report
Dr. Sally Benson, Executive Director, Global Climate and Energy Project, Stanford University

* Mr. Charles E. Fox, Vice President of Operation and Technology, Kinder-Morgan
* Dr. Robert C. Burruss, Research Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey
* Mr. Ron Wolfe, Corporate Forester and Natural Resources Manager, Sealaska Corporation
* Mr. Bryan Hannegan, Vice President, Environment, Electric Power Research Institute

Source: Senator John Kerry

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