[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 66 (Monday, May 5, 2014)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2648-S2649]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. ROCKEFELLER (for himself and Mr. Walsh):
  S. 2287. A bill to facilitate the development and commercial 
deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technologies, and for 
other purposes; to the Committee on Finance.

[[Page S2649]]

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, today I am introducing two bills, S. 
2287 and S. 2288, to help advance commercial deployment of clean coal 
technologies. The Carbon Capture and Sequestration Deployment Act of 
2014 and the Expanding Carbon Capture through Enhanced Oil Recovery Act 
of 2014. These pieces of legislation would invest in carbon capture and 
sequestration, CCS, research and development; expand tax credits for 
companies investing in CCS technologies; and create loan guarantees for 
construction of new CCS facilities and retrofits of existing 
facilities.
  As I have said many times before, the reality remains for West 
Virginia and our Nation--we need coal and we simply cannot meet our 
energy demands without coal.
  That being said, it is unrealistic to think that coal is as clean as 
it could be, or that it will be around forever. Yet to think that we 
can stop burning coal and shift to cleaner sources of energy 
immediately is simply not viable. We must place our focus on a feasible 
alternative, and carbon capture and sequestration technologies can 
provide just that.
  The legislation I am introducing today combines several of my 
proposals in past years with new ideas for improving CCS deployment, 
including an expansion of tax credits for companies utilizing and 
improving upon CCS technology.
  The Carbon Capture and Sequestration Deployment Act of 2014 would 
authorize $1 billion over 15 years for an industry-government research 
program through the Department of Energy and authorize $20 billion in 
loan guarantees to be used for the construction or retrofitting of 
facilities utilizing CCS technology, and for the construction of 
CO2 transmission pipelines. Moreover, it modifies the 
existing Carbon Dioxide Sequestration Tax Credit, 45Q, currently capped 
and available on a first come-first served basis, by allowing projects 
to apply for an allocation of credits to use in the future, and 
ensuring that multiple projects will have the opportunity to take 
advantage of these important credits. Finally, it creates a new 
investment tax credit. Carbon capture and sequestration facilities that 
operate with at least a 65 percent capture rate would receive an 
investment tax credit of 15 percent of their costs. Those operating 
with a higher capture rate, up to 100 percent of CO2 
emissions, would receive a maximum credit of 30 percent of their costs.
  The second piece of legislation, the Expanding Carbon Capture through 
Enhanced Oil Recovery Act of 2014, expands the Carbon Dioxide 
Sequestration Tax Credit, 45Q, tax credit to help advance capture 
technology through the greater use of carbon dioxide enhanced oil 
recovery, CO2- EOR, in the United States.
  A decades-old and proven practice, CO2-EOR involves 
injecting CO2 into already-developed oil fields to coax 
additional production. According to the National Energy Technology 
Laboratory, increasing the supply of CO2 captured from man-
made sources has the potential to increase American oil production by 
tens of billions of barrels, while safely storing billions of tons of 
CO2 underground.
  The existing 45Q tax credit remains insufficient to take advantage of 
CO2-EOR's potential. New, additional 45Q credits would be 
awarded via competitive bidding in a way that will make certain that 
the government is incentivizing carbon capture to be used in EOR 
without overpaying, and that credits are available and sufficient for 
the range of potential man-made sources of CO2.
  According to the National Enhanced Oil Recovery Initiative's 
analysis, new 45Q credits allocated over ten years would generate more 
than 8 billion barrels of oil, while storing 4 billion tons of 
CO2 over 40 years.
  I remain committed to meeting the challenges facing the coal industry 
while also protecting our environment for current and future 
generations. I hope that others with a stake in meeting coal's 
challenges will join me in this effort as well.
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