We've been warned that the inability of the U.S. Senate to pass the American Power Act (APA), or something (anything) to address greenhouse gas emissions, would have consequences.
But now that it appears that a climate and energy bill will not pass in the near term, the waiting is over for some. For example, wind energy development is likely to face trouble in getting enough investment money to expand. And in the case of coal, it's 'business as usual', at least for mining in Montana.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer said Friday that Congress' failure to move energy legislation will slow investment in all types of coal projects - clean or dirty - but won't slow mining for the state's coal needed to supply current power plants.
So the extraction from the Otter Creek coal tracts in SE Montana, which was unsuccessfully opposed by Montanans earlier this year, will move forward. Admittedly, this was expected. Coal extraction and use will be with us for quite some time until less-polluting energy sources are developed more fully, and old coal fired power plants are retired.
Nonetheless, climate and energy legislation will set us on a course for eventual freedom from dirty energy sources.
...Schweitzerpointed out that he thinks the absence of any energy policy on carbon at all is going to chill development of expensive, long-term energy projects - particularly those powered by coal.
Schweitzer said wind projects in the state will continue to develop, but perhaps not as fast as if there were a price on carbon emissions....
The 'expensive, long-term energy projects' he's referring to are those associated with carbon capture and sequestration. Policy-makers and scientistsrecognize that this technology will be an important part of climate and energy legislation.
...Because political realities may inhibit an
optimally designed carbon pricing system,
and because some emission sources may be
relatively insensitive to pricing signals, major
emission reductions will also require a portfolio
of complementary policies aimed at ensuring
rapid progress in efforts to:
–– realize the full potential of energy efficiency
and low-emission energy sources in the
electric sector (e.g., renewables) and the
transportation sector (e.g., low-carbon fuels).
–– advance full-scale demonstration efforts to
establish the technical and economic feasibility
of carbon capture and storage and
new-generation nuclear technologies;[emphasis added]
–– accelerate the retirement or retrofit of
emission-intensive infrastructure.
CCS research and development will provide investments and jobs as 'coal states' like Montana states move, ultimately, to clean energy, giving politicians a reason to get on board with climate legislation. Whether CCS works or not is another matter, which I'll leave to the engineers among us to debate.
A CCS project in Montana wasscrapped recently due to lack of funding. (It didn't qualify for a federal stimulus grant, but I suspect Governor Schweitzer expected it to have been included with climate and energy legislation.)
While it is unfortunate that wind and CCS technologies are not going to move forward as rapidly as we would wish, the lack of legislative progress, may have some 'benefits':
There has been little interest in building coal-fired power plants due to uncertainty over climate legislation, and Schweitzer said he expects those projects to stay on the back burner.
Good. We need to be moving in a different direction.