[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 24 (Friday, February 5, 2010)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 6087-6088]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-2744]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 24 / Friday, February 5, 2010 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 6087]]


                Memorandum of February 3, 2010

                
A Comprehensive Federal Strategy on Carbon 
                Capture and Storage

                Memorandum for the Secretary of State[,] the Secretary 
                of the Treasury[,] the Attorney General[,] the 
                Secretary of the Interior[,] the Secretary of 
                Agriculture[,] the Secretary of Commerce[,] the 
                Secretary of Labor[,] the Secretary of 
                Transportation[,] the Secretary of Energy[,] the 
                Director of the Office of Management and Budget[,] the 
                Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency[,] 
                the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory 
                Commission[,] the Director of the Office of Science and 
                Technology Policy[, and] the Chair of the Council on 
                Environmental Quality

                For decades, the coal industry has supported quality 
                high-paying jobs for American workers, and coal has 
                provided an important domestic source of reliable, 
                affordable energy. At the same time, coal-fired power 
                plants are the largest contributor to U.S. greenhouse 
                gas emissions and coal accounts for 40 percent of 
                global emissions. Charting a path toward clean coal is 
                essential to achieving my Administration's goals of 
                providing clean energy, supporting American jobs, and 
                reducing emissions of carbon pollution. Rapid 
                commercial development and deployment of clean coal 
                technologies, particularly carbon capture and storage 
                (CCS), will help position the United States as a leader 
                in the global clean energy race.

                My Administration is already pursuing a set of concrete 
                initiatives to speed the commercial development of 
                safe, affordable, and broadly deployable CCS 
                technologies. We have made the largest Government 
                investment in carbon capture and storage of any nation 
                in history, and these investments are being matched by 
                private capital. The Department of Energy is conducting 
                a comprehensive clean coal technology program including 
                research, development, and demonstration of CCS 
                technologies and is pursuing important international 
                cooperative initiatives to spur demonstration and 
                deployment of CCS. The Environmental Protection Agency 
                is developing regulations that address the safety, 
                efficacy, and environmental soundness of injecting and 
                storing carbon dioxide underground. The Department of 
                the Interior is assessing, in coordination with the 
                Department of Energy, the country's geologic capacity 
                to store carbon dioxide and promoting geological 
                storage demonstration projects on public lands. All of 
                this work builds on the firm scientific basis that now 
                exists for the viability of CCS technology.

                To further this work and develop a comprehensive and 
                coordinated Federal strategy to speed the commercial 
                development and deployment of clean coal technologies, 
                I hereby establish an Interagency Task Force on Carbon 
                Capture and Storage (Task Force). You shall each 
                designate a senior official from your respective agency 
                to serve on the Task Force, which shall be Co-Chaired 
                by the designees from the Department of Energy and the 
                Environmental Protection Agency.

                The Task Force shall develop within 180 days of the 
                date of this memorandum a proposed plan to overcome the 
                barriers to the widespread, cost-effective deployment 
                of CCS within 10 years, with a goal of bringing 5 to 10 
                commercial demonstration projects online by 2016. The 
                plan should explore incentives for commercial CCS 
                adoption and address any financial, economic, 
                technological, legal, institutional, social, or other 
                barriers to deployment. The Task Force should consider 
                how best to coordinate existing

[[Page 6088]]

                administrative authorities and programs, including 
                those that build international collaboration on CCS, as 
                well as identify areas where additional administrative 
                authority may be necessary. The Co-Chairs shall report 
                progress periodically to the President through the 
                Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality.

                Ultimately, comprehensive energy and climate 
                legislation that puts a cap on carbon pollution will 
                provide the largest incentive for CCS because it will 
                create stable, long-term, market-based incentives to 
                channel private investment in low-carbon technologies. 
                My Administration's new CCS strategy will pave the way 
                for this energy transition by identifying and removing 
                barriers to rapid commercial deployment and by 
                providing greater legal and regulatory clarity. This 
                will help to spur private investment in CCS in the near 
                term--investment that will create good jobs and benefit 
                communities.

                This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with 
                applicable law and subject to the availability of 
                appropriations. This memorandum is not intended to, and 
                does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or 
                procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any 
                party against the United States, its departments, 
                agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or 
                agents, or any other person.

                The Secretary of Energy is hereby authorized and 
                directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal 
                Register.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

                THE WHITE HOUSE,

                    WASHINGTON, February 3, 2010

[FR Doc. 2010-2744
Filed 2-4-10; 11:15 am]
Billing code 6450-01-P