1.This Act may be cited as the
Carbon Capture and Storage Early
Deployment Act
.
2.
(1)The term Secretary
means
the Secretary of Energy.
(2)The term
distribution utility
means an entity that distributes
electricity directly to retail consumers under a legal, regulatory, or
contractual obligation to do so.
(3)The term electric utility
has the meaning
provided by section 3(22) of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 796(22)).
(4)Fossil
fuel-based electricityThe
term fossil fuel-based electricity
means electricity that is
produced from the combustion of fossil fuels.
(5)The term fossil fuel
means coal, petroleum,
natural gas or any derivative of coal, petroleum, or natural gas.
(6)The
term Corporation
means the Carbon Storage Research Corporation
established in accordance with this Act.
(7)Qualified
industry organizationThe
term qualified industry organization
means the Edison Electric
Institute, the American Public Power Association, the National Rural Electric
Cooperative Association, a successor organization of such organizations or a
group of owners or operators of distribution utilities delivering fossil
fuel-based electricity who collectively represent at least 20 percent of the
volume of fossil fuel-based electricity delivered by distribution utilities to
consumers in the United States.
(8)The term “retail consumer” means an end-user of
electricity.
3.Carbon Storage
Research Corporation
(a)
(1)Qualified
industry organizations may conduct, at their own expense, a referendum among
the owners or operators of distribution utilities delivering fossil fuel-based
electricity for the creation of a Carbon Storage Research Corporation. Such
referendum shall be conducted by an independent auditing firm agreed to by the
qualified industry organizations. Voting rights in such referendum shall be
based on the quantity of fossil fuel-based electricity delivered to consumers
in the previous calendar year or other representative period as determined by
the Secretary pursuant to section 6. Upon approval of those persons
representing two-thirds of the total quantity of fossil fuel-based electricity
delivered to retail consumers, the Corporation shall be established unless
opposed by the State regulatory authorities pursuant to paragraph (2). All
distribution utilities voting in the referendum shall certify to the
independent auditing firm the quantity of fossil fuel-based electricity
represented by their vote.
(2)State regulatory
authoritiesUpon its own motion or the petition of a qualified
industry organization, each State regulatory authority shall consider its
support or opposition to the creation of the Corporation under paragraph (1).
State regulatory authorities may notify the independent auditing firm referred
to in paragraph (1) of their views on the creation of the Corporation within
180 days after the enactment of this Act. If 40 percent or more of the State
regulatory authorities submit to the independent auditing firm written notices
of opposition, the Corporation shall not be established notwithstanding the
approval of the qualified industry organizations as provided in paragraph
(1).
(b)The Corporation shall be authorized to
collect assessments and conduct operations pursuant to this Act for a 10-year
period from the date 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act. After
such 10-year period, the Corporation is no longer authorized to collect
assessments and shall be dissolved on the date 15 years after such date of
enactment, unless the period is extended by an Act of Congress.
(c)The
Corporation shall operate as a division or affiliate of the Electric Power
Research Institute (EPRI) and be managed by a Board of not more than 15 voting
members responsible for its operations, including compliance with this Act.
EPRI, in consultation with the Edison Electric Institute, the American Public
Power Association and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association shall
appoint the Board members under subparagraphs (A), (B), and (C) of paragraph
(1) from among candidates recommended by those organizations. At least a
majority of the Board members appointed by EPRI shall be representatives of
distribution utilities subject to assessments under section 5.
(1)The
Board shall include at least one representative of each of the
following:
(A)Investor-owned
utilities.
(B)Utilities owned by
a State agency or a municipality.
(C)Rural electric
cooperatives.
(D)Fossil fuel
producers.
(E)Non-profit
environmental organizations.
(F)Independent
generators or wholesale power providers.
(G)Consumer
groups.
(2)The Board shall also include as additional non-voting
Members the Secretary of Energy or his designee and 2 representatives of State
regulatory authorities as defined in section 3(17) of the Public Utility
Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2602, 3(17)), each designated by the
National Association of State Regulatory Utility Commissioners from States that
are not within the same transmission interconnection.
(d)Corporation Board members shall receive no
compensation for their services, nor shall Corporation Board members be
reimbursed for expenses relating to their service.
(e)Corporation Board members shall serve terms
of 4 years and may serve not more than 2 full consecutive terms. Members
filling unexpired terms may serve not more than a total of 8 consecutive years.
Former members of the Corporation Board may be reappointed to the Corporation
Board if they have not been members for a period of 2 years. Initial
appointments to the Corporation Board shall be for terms of 1, 2, 3, and 4
years, staggered to provide for the selection of 3 members each year.
(f)The Corporation shall not be considered to be an
agency, department, or instrumentality of the United States, and no officer or
director or employee of the Corporation shall be considered to be an officer or
employee of the United States Government, for purposes of title 5 or title 31
of the United States Code, or for any other purpose, and no funds of the
Corporation shall be treated as public money for purposes of chapter 33 of
title 31, United States Code, or for any other purpose.
4.Functions and
administration of the Corporation
(a)The Corporation shall
establish and administer a program to accelerate the commercial availability of
carbon dioxide capture and storage technologies and methods, including
technologies which capture and store, or capture and convert, carbon dioxide.
Under such program competitively awarded grants, contracts, and financial
assistance shall be provided and entered into with eligible entities. Except as
provided in subsection (g), the Corporation shall use all funds derived from
assessments under section 5 to issue grants and contracts to eligible
entities.
(b)The
purposes of the grants, contracts, and assistance under this section shall be
to support commercial-scale demonstrations of carbon capture or storage
technology projects capable of advancing the technologies to commercial
readiness. Such projects should encompass a range of different coal and other
fossil fuel varieties, be geographically diverse, involve diverse storage
media, and employ capture or storage, or capture and conversion, technologies
potentially suitable either for new or for retrofit applications.
(c)Entities eligible
for grants, contracts or assistance under this section may include distribution
utilities, electric utilities and other private entities, academic
institutions, national laboratories, Federal research agencies, State research
agencies, non-profit organizations, or consortiums of 2 or more entities.
Pilot-scale and similar small-scale projects are not eligible for support by
the Corporation.
(d)The members of the Board of Directors of
the Corporation shall elect a Chairman and other officers as necessary, may
establish committees and subcommittees of the Corporation, and shall adopt
rules and bylaws for the conduct of business and the implementation of this
Act. The Board shall appoint an Executive Director and professional support
staff who may be employees of the Electric Power Research Institute. After
consultation with the Technical Advisory Committee established under section
10, the Secretary, and the Director of the National Energy Technology
Laboratory to obtain advice and recommendations on plans, programs, and project
selection criteria, the Board shall establish priorities for grants, contracts,
and assistance; publish requests for proposals for grants, contracts and
assistance; award grants, contracts and assistance competitively, on the basis
of merit, after the establishment of procedures that provide for scientific
peer review by the Technical Advisory Committee. The Board shall give
preference to applications that reflect the best overall value and prospect for
achieving the purposes of the Act, such as those which demonstrate an
integrated approach for capture and storage or capture and conversion
technologies. The Board members shall not participate in making grants or
awards to entities with whom they are affiliated.
(e)Uses of grants,
contracts, and assistanceA grant, contract, or other assistance
provided under this section may be used to purchase carbon dioxide when needed
to conduct tests of carbon dioxide storage sites, in the case of established
projects that are storing carbon dioxide emissions, or for other purposes
consistent with the purposes of this Act. The Corporation shall make publicly
available at no cost information learned as a result of projects which it
supports financially.
(f)The Board shall establish policies regarding the
ownership of intellectual property developed as a result of Corporation grants
and other forms of technology support. Such policies shall encourage individual
ingenuity and invention.
(g)Up to 5 percent of
the funds collected in any fiscal year under section 5 may be used for the
administrative expenses of operating the Corporation (not including costs
incurred in the determination and collection of the assessments pursuant to
section 5).
(h)Before August 1 each
year, the Corporation, after consulting with the Technical Advisory Committee
and the Secretary and the Director of the Department’s National Energy
Technology Laboratory and other interested parties to obtain advice and
recommendations, shall publish for public review and comment its proposed
plans, programs, project selection criteria, and projects to be funded by the
Corporation for the next calendar year. The Corporation shall also publish for
public review and comment a budget plan for the next calendar year, including
the probable costs of all programs, projects, and contracts and a recommended
rate of assessment sufficient to cover such costs. The Secretary may recommend
program and activities the Secretary considers appropriate.
(i)The Corporation shall
keep minutes, books, and records that clearly reflect all of the acts and
transactions of the Corporation and make public such information. The books of
the Corporation shall be audited by a certified public accountant at least once
each fiscal year and at such other times as the Corporation may designate.
Copies of each audit shall be provided to the Congress, all Corporation board
members, all qualified industry organizations, each State regulatory authority
and, upon request, to other members of the industry. If the audit determines
that the Corporation’s practices fail to meet generally accepted accounting
principles the assessment collection authority of the Corporation under section
5 shall be suspended until a certified public accountant renders a subsequent
opinion that the failure has been corrected.
(j)(1)The Corporation Board’s meetings shall be
open to the public and shall occur after at least 30 days advance public
notice. Meetings of the Board of Directors may be closed to the public where
the agenda of such meetings includes only confidential matters pertaining to
project selection, the award of grants or contracts, personnel matter, or the
receipt of legal advice.
(2)The minutes of all meetings of the
Corporation shall be made available to and readily accessible by the
public.
(k)Each year the
Corporation shall prepare and make publicly available a report which includes
an identification and description of all programs and projects undertaken by
the Corporation during the previous year. The report shall also detail the
allocation or planned allocation of Corporation resources for each such program
and project. The Corporation shall provide its annual report to the Congress,
the Secretary, each State regulatory authority, and upon request to the
public.
5.
(a)(1)In all calendar years
following its establishment, the Corporation shall collect an assessment on
distribution utilities for all fossil fuel-based electricity delivered directly
to retail consumers (as determined under section 6). The assessments shall
reflect the relative carbon dioxide emission rates of different fossil
fuel-based electricity, and initially shall be not less than the following
amounts for coal, natural gas, and oil:
Fuel
typeRate
of assessment per kilowatt hour
Coal$0.00043
Natural Gas$0.00022
Oil$0.00032.
(2)The Corporation is authorized to
adjust the assessments on fossil fuel-based electricity to reflect changes in
the expected quantities of such electricity from different fuel types, such
that the assessments generate not less than $1.0 billion and not more than $1.1
billion annually. The Corporation is authorized to supplement assessments
through additional financial commitments.
(b)Pending disbursement
pursuant to a program, plan, or project, the Corporation may invest funds
collected through assessments under this section, and any other funds received
by the Corporation, only in obligations of the United States or any agency
thereof, in general obligations of any State or any political subdivision
thereof, in any interest-bearing account or certificate of deposit of a bank
that is a member of the Federal Reserve System, or in obligations fully
guaranteed as to principal and interest by the United States.
(c)Reversion of
unused fundsIf the
Corporation does not disburse, dedicate or assign 75 percent or more of the
available proceeds of the assessed fees in any calendar year 7 or more years
following its establishment, due to an absence of qualified projects or similar
circumstances, it shall reimburse the remaining undedicated or unassigned
balance of such fees, less administrative and other expenses authorized by this
Act, to the distribution utilities upon which such fees were assessed, in
proportion to their collected assessments.
6.
(a)Assessment,
collection, and remitance(1)Notwithstanding any
other provision of this Act, within ERCOT, the assessment provided for in
section 5 shall be—
(A)levied directly on
qualified scheduling entities, or their successor entities;
(B)charged consistent
with other charges imposed on qualified scheduling entities as a fee on energy
used by the load serving entities; and
(C)collected and
remitted by ERCOT to the Corporation in the amounts and in the same manner as
set forth in section 5.
(2)The assessment amounts referred to in
paragraph (1) shall be—
(A)determined by the amount and types of
fossil fuel-based electricity delivered directly to all retail customers in the
prior calendar year beginning with the year ending immediately prior to the
period described in section 3(b); and
(B)take into account the number of
renewable energy credits retired by the load serving entities represented by a
qualified scheduling entity within the prior calendar year.
(b)Up to 1 percent of
the funds collected in any fiscal year by ERCOT under the provisions of this
section may be used for the administrative expenses incurred in the
determination, collection and remittance of the assessments to the
Corporation.
(c)ERCOT
shall provide a copy of its annual audit pertaining to the administration of
the provisions of this section to the Corporation.
(d)For
the purposes of this section:
(1)The term “ERCOT”
means the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
(2)The term “load
serving entities” has the meaning adopted by ERCOT Protocols and in effect on
the date of enactment of this Act.
(3)The term
“qualified scheduling entities” has the meaning adopted by ERCOT Protocols and
in effect on the date of enactment of this Act.
(4)The term
“renewable energy credit” has the meaning as promulgated and adopted by the
Public Utility Commission of Texas pursuant to section 39.904(b) of the Public
Utility Regulatory Act of 1999, and in effect on the date of enactment of this
Act.
7.Determination of
fossil fuel-based electricity deliveries
(a)The Congress finds that:
(1)The assessments
under section 5 are to be collected based on the amount of fossil fuel
generated electricity delivered by each distribution utility.
(2)Since many
distribution utilities purchase all or part of their retail consumer’s
electricity needs from other entities, it may not be practical to determine the
precise fuel mix for the power sold by each individual distribution
utility.
(3)It may be
necessary to use average data, often on a regional basis with reference to
Regional Transmission organization or NERC regions, to make the determinations
necessary for making assessments.
(b)The Secretary, acting in close consultation with the Energy
Information Administration, shall issue for notice and comment a proposed rule
to determine the level of fossil fuel electricity delivered to retail customers
by each distribution utility in the United States during the most recent
calendar year or other period determined to be most appropriate. Such proposed
rule shall balance the need to be efficient, reasonably precise and timely,
taking into account the nature and cost of data currently available and the
nature of markets and regulation in effect in various regions of the country.
Different methodologies may be applied in different regions if appropriate to
obtain the best balance of such factors.
(c)Within 6 months after
the enactment of this Act, and after opportunity for comment, the Secretary
shall issue a final rule under this section for determining the level and type
of fossil fuel electricity delivered to retail customers by each distribution
utility in the United States during the appropriate period. In issuing such
rule, the Secretary may consider opportunities and costs to develop new data
sources in the future and issue recommendations for the Energy Information
Administration or other entities to collect such data. After notice and
opportunity for comment the Secretary may, by rule, subsequently update and
modify the methodology for making such determinations.
(d)Pursuant to the final rule issued under subsection
(c), the Secretary shall make annual determinations of the amounts and types
for each such utility and publish such determinations in the Federal Register.
Such determinations shall be used to conduct the referendum under section 3 and
by the Corporation in applying any assessment under this title.
(e)Rehearing and
judicial reviewThe owner or
operator of any distribution utility that believes that the Secretary has
misapplied the methodology in the final rule in determining the amount and
types of fossil fuel electricity delivered by such distribution utility may
seek rehearing of such determination within 30 days of publication of the
determination in the Federal Register. The Secretary shall decide such
rehearing petitions within 30 days. The Secretary’s determinations following
rehearing shall be final and subject to judicial review in the United States
court of appeals for the District of Columbia.
8.Compliance with
Corporation assessmentsThe
Corporation may bring an action in the appropriate court of the United States
to compel compliance with an assessment levied by the Corporation under this
Act. A successful action for compliance under this section may also require
payment by the defendant of the costs incurred by the Corporation in bringing
such action.
9.Not later than 5 years
following establishment of the Corporation, the Comptroller General of the
United States shall prepare an analysis, and report to Congress, assessing the
Corporation’s activities, including project selection and methods of
disbursement of assessed fees, impacts on the prospects for commercialization
of carbon capture and storage technologies, and adequacy of funding. The report
shall also make such recommendations as may be appropriate in each of these
areas. The Corporation shall reimburse the Government Accountability Office for
the costs associated with performing this midcourse review.
10.
(a)A distribution
utility whose transmission, delivery, or sales of electric energy are subject
to any form of rate regulation shall not be denied the opportunity to recover
the full amount of the prudently incurred costs associated with complying with
this Act, consistent with applicable State or Federal law.
(b)Regulatory
authorities that approve cost recovery pursuant to subsection (a) may order
rebates to ratepayers to the extent that distribution utilities are reimbursed
undedicated or unassigned balances pursuant to section 5(c).
11.Technical
Advisory Committee
(a)There is established an advisory committee,
to be known as the Technical Advisory Committee
.
(b)The
Technical Advisory Committee shall be comprised of not less than 7 members
appointed by the Board from among academic institutions, national laboratories,
independent research institutions, and other qualified institutions. No member
of the Committee shall be affiliated with EPRI or with any organization having
members serving on the Board. At least one member of the Committee shall be
appointed from among officers or employees of the Department of Energy
recommended to the Board by the Secretary of Energy.
(c)Chairperson and
Vice ChairpersonThe Board shall designate one member of the
Technical Advisory Committee to serve as Chairperson of the Committee and one
to serve as Vice Chairperson of the Committee.
(d)The
Board shall provide compensation to members of the Technical Advisory Committee
for travel and other incidental expenses and such other compensation as the
Board determines to be necessary.
(e)The
Technical Advisory shall provide independent assessments and technical
evaluations, as well as make non-binding recommendations to the Board,
concerning Corporation activities, including but not limited to the
following:
(1)Reviewing and evaluating the Corporation’s
plans and budgets described in section 4 (h), as well as any other appropriate
areas, which could include approaches to prioritizing technologies,
appropriateness of engineering techniques, monitoring and verification
technologies for storage, geological site selection, cost control
measures.
(2)Making annual
non-binding recommendations to the Board concerning any of the matters referred
to in paragraph (1), as well as what types of investments, scientific research,
or engineering practices would best further to the goals of the
Corporation.
(f)All reports, evaluations, and other materials of the
Technical Advisory Committee shall be made available to the public by the
Board, without charge, at time of receipt by the Board.
12.No funds
collected by the Corporation shall be used in any manner for influencing
legislation or elections, except that the Corporation may recommend to the
Secretary and the Congress changes in this Act or other statutes that would
further the purposes of this Act.
13.The Corporation
shall ensure that entities receiving grants, contracts, or other financial
support from the Corporation for the project activities authorized by this Act
are in compliance with the Davis-Bacon Act (40 U.S.C. 276a–276a–5).