[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 962 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 962

 To amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to reauthorize and improve the 
  carbon capture and storage research, development, and demonstration 
      program of the Department of Energy and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 22, 2007

 Mr. Bingaman (for himself, Mr. Domenici, Mr. Tester, Mr. Bunning, Mr. 
Salazar, Mr. Obama, and Mr. Webb) introduced the following bill; which 
  was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to reauthorize and improve the 
  carbon capture and storage research, development, and demonstration 
      program of the Department of Energy and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Department of Energy Carbon Capture 
and Storage Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 2007''.

SEC. 2. CARBON CAPTURE AND STORAGE RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND 
              DEMONSTRATION PROGRAM.

    Section 963 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 16293) is 
amended--
            (1) in the section heading, by striking ``research and 
        development'' and inserting ``and storage research, 
        development, and demonstration'';
            (2) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) by striking ``research and development'' and 
                inserting ``and storage research, development, and 
                demonstration''; and
                    (B) by striking ``capture technologies on 
                combustion-based systems'' and inserting ``capture and 
                storage technologies related to energy systems'';
            (3) in subsection (b)--
                    (A) in paragraph (3), by striking ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (B) in paragraph (4), by striking the period at the 
                end and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(5) to expedite and carry out large-scale testing of 
        carbon sequestration systems in a range of geological 
        formations that will provide information on the cost and 
        feasibility of deployment of sequestration technologies.''; and
            (4) by striking subsection (c) and inserting the following:
    ``(c) Programmatic Activities.--
            ``(1) Energy research and development underlying carbon 
        capture and storage technologies.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The Secretary shall carry out 
                fundamental science and engineering research (including 
                laboratory-scale experiments, numeric modeling, and 
                simulations) to develop and document the performance of 
                new approaches to capture and store carbon dioxide.
                    ``(B) Program integration.--The Secretary shall 
                ensure that fundamental research carried out under this 
                paragraph is appropriately applied to energy technology 
                development activities and the field testing of carbon 
                sequestration activities, including--
                            ``(i) development of new or improved 
                        technologies for the capture of carbon dioxide;
                            ``(ii) modeling and simulation of 
                        geological sequestration field demonstrations; 
                        and
                            ``(iii) quantitative assessment of risks 
                        relating to specific field sites for testing of 
                        sequestration technologies.
            ``(2) Field validation testing activities.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The Secretary shall promote, to 
                the maximum extent practicable, regional carbon 
                sequestration partnerships to conduct geologic 
                sequestration tests involving carbon dioxide injection 
                and monitoring, mitigation, and verification operations 
                in a variety of candidate geological settings, 
                including--
                            ``(i) operating oil and gas fields;
                            ``(ii) depleted oil and gas fields;
                            ``(iii) unmineable coal seams;
                            ``(iv) saline formations; and
                            ``(v) deep geologic systems that may be 
                        used as engineered reservoirs to extract 
                        economical quantities of heat from geothermal 
                        resources of low permeability or porosity.
                    ``(B) Objectives.--The objectives of tests 
                conducted under this paragraph shall be--
                            ``(i) to develop and validate geophysical 
                        tools, analysis, and modeling to monitor, 
                        predict, and verify carbon dioxide containment;
                            ``(ii) to validate modeling of geological 
                        formations;
                            ``(iii) to refine storage capacity 
                        estimated for particular geological formations;
                            ``(iv) to determine the fate of carbon 
                        dioxide concurrent with and following injection 
                        into geological formations;
                            ``(v) to develop and implement best 
                        practices for operations relating to, and 
                        monitoring of, injection and storage of carbon 
                        dioxide in geologic formations;
                            ``(vi) to assess and ensure the safety of 
                        operations related to geological storage of 
                        carbon dioxide; and
                            ``(vii) to allow the Secretary to 
                        promulgate policies, procedures, requirements, 
                        and guidance to ensure that the objectives of 
                        this subparagraph are met in large-scale 
                        testing and deployment activities for carbon 
                        capture and storage that are funded by the 
                        Department of Energy.
            ``(3) Large-scale testing and deployment.--
                    ``(A) In general.--The Secretary shall conduct not 
                less than 7 initial large-volume sequestration tests 
                for geological containment of carbon dioxide (at least 
                1 of which shall be international in scope) to validate 
                information on the cost and feasibility of commercial 
                deployment of technologies for geological containment 
                of carbon dioxide.
                    ``(B) Diversity of formations to be studied.--In 
                selecting formations for study under this paragraph, 
                the Secretary shall consider a variety of geological 
                formations across the United States, and require 
                characterization and modeling of candidate formations, 
                as determined by the Secretary.
            ``(4) Preference in project selection from meritorious 
        proposals.--In making competitive awards under this subsection, 
        subject to the requirements of section 989, the Secretary shall 
        give preference to proposals from partnerships among 
        industrial, academic, and government entities.
            ``(5) Cost sharing.--Activities under this subsection shall 
        be considered research and development activities that are 
        subject to the cost-sharing requirements of section 988(b).
    ``(d) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated to carry out this section--
            ``(1) $90,000,000 for fiscal year 2007;
            ``(2) $105,000,000 for fiscal year 2008; and
            ``(3) $120,000,000 for fiscal year 2009.''.
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