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November 18, 2024

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FERC Proposes New Cybersecurity Standard

FERC on Thursday issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would have NERC to expand its Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) reliability standards to cover internal communications (RM22-3).

The proposed standards would require registered entities to implement internal network security monitoring (INSM) for high- and medium-impact bulk electric system cyber systems (BCS), correcting what FERC staff called a “gap in the security standards” during Thursday’s open meeting.

Currently the CIP standards require a utility to monitor communications from the inside of its electronic security perimeter (ESP), the electronic border around the internal network to which BCS are connected, to the outside. The NOPR seeks to expand this monitoring to communications within the ESP, allowing “the earliest possible alerting and detection of intrusions and malicious activity” into the “trust zone” — the utility’s internal computing environment that is protected by the ESP.

As defined in FERC’s order, INSM is not a single process or piece of software but rather a set of practices for gaining visibility into an entity’s own system. It includes tools such as antimalware, intrusion detection and prevention systems, and firewalls; this software can have both passive, information-gathering applications, or active functions that block malicious network traffic.

FERC’s order was motivated by recent cyberattacks, most prominently the SolarWinds hack of 2020. The hack of SolarWinds’ Orion management software, used by thousands of public- and private-sector organizations around the world (including FERC itself), left many of those entities with malicious code inside their systems. (See FERC, E-ISAC Report Details Reach of SolarWinds Compromise.) Last April the U.S. accused Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service of perpetrating the original attack and later leveraging their access to gain network privileges to SolarWinds’ Microsoft 365 and Azure Cloud environments.

Because the compromised software came via Orion’s official update channel, the SolarWinds attack “demonstrated how an attacker can bypass all network perimeter-based security controls traditionally used to identify the early phases of an attack,” FERC staff said. Adding INSM to the CIP standards would give all entities the means to detect and respond to suspicious activity by software within the network by, for example, recording normal network traffic and using it as a baseline to flag anomalous activity for further investigation.

“If [the hackers] do get in … you’d have enough awareness about that early to be able to take quick action to alleviate any concerns that might exist,” FERC Chairman Richard Glick said in a press conference following Thursday’s meeting. “Sometimes people get into your system using these perfectly legitimate pieces of software … and so, companies need to be vigilant not only about hackers getting in [but also] if people figure that out, let’s make sure that we have our defenses on internally to be able to address that as quickly as possible.”

For now, FERC is only proposing to add INSM to high- and medium-impact BCS because those systems are defined in the CIP standards, while low-impact systems are not; this distinction makes it difficult to apply CIP requirements to low-impact BCS because there is much more variety among these systems.

However, staff said in Thursday’s meeting that they “are seeking comments on the usefulness and practicality” of requiring INSM in low-impact systems, along with potential challenges of implementing INSM in general, what hardware and software capabilities would be needed to achieve the NOPR’s security goals, and what is a reasonable time frame for developing and implementing the new reliability standards.

Comments on the NOPR are due 60 days after its publication in the Federal Register.

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Massachusetts Transit Bill Seeks Fast Track for Electrification

Legislators and environmental advocates spoke Thursday on behalf of a bill that would speed up a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority plan to electrify its bus fleet by 2040.

The bill (S2292) would set a new full-fleet electrification target for 2030 — with interim targets — and direct MBTA to purchase only electric vehicles starting next year.

Gov. Charlie Baker’s decision to back away from the Transportation and Climate Initiative and new obstacles to building the New England Clean Energy Connect project are “serious blows” to the state’s ability to meet its climate goals, Sen. Brendan Crighton, co-sponsor of the bill, said during a Joint Transportation Committee hearing.

The bill on public transit electrification, he said, would put the state “back on track.”

Under the proposed legislation, MBTA would have to ensure all garages for the authority’s 1,100 buses be ready to support an all-electric fleet by 2029. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation, which oversees the MBTA, already has a plan in place for transitioning state transit buses and facilities through 2040, setting new and modernized facility openings every two years along with bus purchases to match facility capacities.

To meet the faster timeline in the bill, MBTA would have to “think creatively,” Rep. Steven Owens (D), who co-sponsored a House companion bill (H3559), said in hearing testimony. The authority could look at “currently underutilized” facilities as “swing space” while new construction is underway, he said.

An estimated $4.5 billion is needed to complete the necessary facility upgrades, according to MBTA, and the authority has yet to identify full funding for its first two modernization projects. There are opportunities for federal funding to fulfill some of the needed funding, Owens said.

Massachusetts will receive $2.8 billion over five years from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to improve the state’s public transportation, according to testimony from Pete Wilson, senior adviser for the Transportation for Massachusetts advocacy coalition. In addition, the Federal Transit Administration has $7.6 billion in competitive fleet electrification grant opportunities.

The FTA grant program “provides funding to replace, rehabilitate and purchase buses and related equipment and to construct bus-related facilities, including new facilities and rehabbing old facilities to accommodate low-emission or no-emission vehicles,” Wilson said.

A goal for the 15 regional transit authorities in Massachusetts to transition their bus fleets to electricity by 2035 is included in the bill.

Rail Transition

The bill sets a timeline for MBTA to move its commuter rail service, which is under contract to Keolis America, to electricity by 2035. A mandated two-phase approach for upgrading rail service would include switching five lines by 2027.

In 2019, MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board adopted a plan to transform the rail system to what it called a “largely electrified, decarbonized” system in its 2020 annual report.

The authority’s existing rail fleet has 101 diesel-powered locomotives, the board said in a June 2021 productivity report. While the board has not set a specific timeline for upgrading the fleet and associated facilities, it started work last year on locomotive procurements for one of MBTA’s rail lines.

As part of its review of options for transitioning the fleet, the board identified a combination of battery-electric and overhead electricity technologies as “the best value approach,” the report said. The board estimated that a full, systemwide rail transformation would cost $28.9 billion.

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FERC Rejects Calls to Shut Down Weymouth Compressor

FERC declined to take action against Enbridge’s Weymouth Compressor Station on Thursday, finding that there is no new information to justify reversing the agency’s 2020 order approving the contentious Massachusetts project (CP16-9-012).

The decision came with promises from the agency’s Democratic majority that it will change how FERC certifies natural gas infrastructure, but chairman Richard Glick acknowledged that would be “cold comfort” to the local opponents who have been challenging the plant for years.

“Although I believe this is the correct conclusion as a legal matter, I don’t take any joy in that conclusion,” Glick said. “In my opinion, the commission should never have approved the proposal to locate the compressor station where it is.”

FERC’s decision on Thursday was the culmination of a February 2021 order setting a paper briefing to examine several blowdowns — unplanned releases of gas — which occurred shortly after the agency approved the project to enter operation in September 2020.

The commissioners’ review found that there were no new facts sufficient to reverse the initial approval, despite the wide range of environmental and public health concerns with the project. “On the record before us, we are unable to find that the public interest requires setting aside the authorization order or imposing additional or different mitigation measures,” the commission wrote in its order.

“We’re restricted by the law,” Glick told reporters after the meeting, pointing to FERC’s issuance of a certificate that was subsequently upheld by the D.C. Circuit. “The legal approaches to remedy the situation really weren’t there.”

But the Democratic majority promised to attempt to avoid that outcome for future projects.

Commissioner Allison Clement called for “swift, common sense and legally compelled” changes to the agency’s pipeline infrastructure certification process.

“The original culprit in this proceeding was not the decision to take a pause and consider changed circumstances, but the inadequate certification policy statement and environmental consideration under which a certificate was originally awarded,” she said.

Glick called on the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to keep a “watchful eye” on the facility, and on Enbridge to “take its obligations as a corporate citizen seriously and take a hard look at any and all options to address the community’s concerns.”

Commissioner Willie Phillips said that while he agreed the commission had no authority to reconsider its approval of the compressor station, he was troubled by it. “Residents living near the Weymouth compressor station are burdened by multiple industrial facilities. And sadly, this pattern of consolidating industrial activity in such communities is neither isolated nor unique,” he said. “… I hope that it will help the commission better engage with these vulnerable communities in the future.”

Republicans on the commission took a different perspective, saying the review improperly reopened the commission’s 2017 approval of Enbridge’s Atlantic Bridge Project — a $452 million expansion of the company’s Algonquin Gas Transmission and Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline systems — of which the compressor station’s construction was a part. (See Atlantic Bridge Project Approved by FERC.)

Commissioner James Danly acknowledged that after receiving the certificate in 2017, Enbridge had to return to the commission for approval to proceed with construction and commence operations. But he said those conditions were to ensure the company met its requirements “rather than a potential opportunity for a re-litigation of the public interest determination made in the certificate.”

“I didn’t think the proceedings should have been initiated,” said Commissioner Mark Christie. “… I think it certainly does add to the growing uncertainty … about whether this commission is going to stand behind certificates.”

Reactions from Mass.

A spokesperson for Enbridge said that the company is “pleased with FERC’s decision not to advance a reexamination of matters which have already been extensively reviewed as part of a multiyear public process.”

In Massachusetts, frustrated opponents pledged to continue to fight the compressor.

“Doing better going forward isn’t going to help the people of Weymouth living right now in the shadow of this dangerous fossil fuel facility,” said Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) in a statement. “We’re going to fight with legislation, with the agencies, and shoulders-to-shoulder with local leaders and grassroots activists to get the compressor station shut down once and for all.”

The agency’s promise to change its process did not fall on deaf ears.

“Weymouth is yet another example of why FERC reform must happen this year. This whole situation is deeply unfair to the folks around the compressor station. Even if FERC concludes that its hands are tied here, it can prevent the next Weymouth — and must,” wrote Gillian Giannetti, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, on Twitter.

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New Jersey Tightens Appliance Energy Use Standards

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed bills Tuesday tightening energy efficiency standards on more than a dozen household and commercial appliances and limiting rates for electric vehicle charging stations in residential neighborhoods.

Supporters of the efficiency standards bill, A5160/S3324, said the measure — the first update in 15 years — would save water and energy. NJPIRG, a public interest advocacy group, said the reduced greenhouse gas emissions would be equal to removing 72,000 vehicles from the road.

“Common appliances like lamps and fans shouldn’t needlessly waste energy, and this new law will make sure they don’t,” said Rachel Vresilovic, associate for NJPIRG.

The 17 appliances covered by the new law, which takes effect immediately, include showerheads, which the law prevents from exceeding a flow of two gallons a minute. The law also requires toilets and urinals to meet federal water consumption standards and a waste extraction test set by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Air purifiers, commercial fryers and commercial ovens, water coolers and steam cookers must meet their respective Energy Star program requirements.

A second bill signed by Murphy on Tuesday, A-2360/S-3285, requires that electric utilities set the cost of electricity for EV charging stations outside of residential units at a level that is no higher than the rates for home chargers. Sponsors of the bill said it aims to ensure that real estate developments don’t charge residents the higher, commercial rate for electricity rather than the residential rate.

Three bill sponsors, Assembly members Annette Chaparro, Robert Karabinchak and Gordon Johnson, said the bill would remove the confusion that can arise when a residential development contains a charging station that levies a commercial rate for the electricity and another charger nearby that charges a residential rate.

“Families who have electric cars should have access to more affordable charging rates and not have to worry about using a higher priced charging station outside their home,” the Democrat lawmakers said when the Assembly backed the bill on Jan. 10. “Residents should not be wary about owning an electric car due to potential confusion at their residential charging stations. It is clear, if a person is at their own residence, they should pay a residential rate”

Cutting Transportation Emissions

The legislation was among 100 bills signed by Murphy on the day of his inauguration for a second, four-year term after a narrower than expected victory over Republican Jack Ciattarelli. In his first term, the governor staked out an aggressive agenda to reduce fossil fuel use, with goals to cut greenhouse gas emission levels to 50% below 2006 levels by 2030, and 80% below 2006 levels by 2050.

Although the policies have earned Murphy the support of environmentalists, he hardly mentioned climate change in his inauguration speech, except to note the economic development spurred by initiatives such as the state’s offshore wind projects.

Henry Gajda, public policy director for the League of Conservation Voters, called the energy efficiency bill “momentous” when it received Assembly approval with a 52-25 vote on Jan. 10. “The cleanest and cheapest energy is the energy we don’t use.”

A key element of Murphy’s strategy is to cut emissions from transportation, which accounts for about 40% of the state’s carbon emissions. The measures include offering subsidies for the purchase of electric trucks and cars, and a mandate that EV vehicles account for a steadily increasing proportion of trucks sold in the state. The state is also seeking to encourage the transition to EVs by increasing the number of charging stations through subsidies and rules to encourage private investment.(See NJ’s EV Charger Rules Face Scrutiny.)

Bill sponsor Sen. Linda Greenstein, commenting after the EV-charging bill secured the support of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee in December, said it would help the state meet its goal of 2 million EVs on the road by 2035.

“By decreasing the price of charging for residents living in developments, this bill will aid in removing some key barriers that currently exist when purchasing and using electric vehicles,” she said.

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‘Buy America’ Hampers Martha’s Vineyard E-bus Plan, Official Says

Battery storage is a key part of the 10-year plan to transition the Martha’s Vineyard Transit Authority (VTA) bus fleet to electricity, but the Federal Transit Administration’s Buy America requirements and industry growth pains have been a challenge on that journey.

VTA has 1,400 kWh of utility-scale battery storage at its operations center as part of a microgrid that enables grid-parallel and grid-independent battery-electric bus (BEB) charging, according to Administrator Angela Gompert.

The authority awarded NEC subsidiary NEC Energy Solutions, based in Westborough, Mass., a contract in 2018 for the storage units. The batteries, however, did not meet the Buy America requirement under the FTA’s guidelines for purchases made with federal assistance, Gompert said on Tuesday during a Green Energy Consumers Alliance webinar.

Under the Buy America Act, a state or local government authority can only use federal assistance on transportation projects if their steel, iron or manufactured goods are produced in the U.S.

“Currently, there are no battery storage vendors that meet the Buy America requirements,” Gompert said. To purchase the batteries, she added, VTA diverted some state funding to the project.

Gompert believes manufacturers need to catch up to the realities of the current U.S. market.

“If there’s a battery vendor that really gets up-to-speed quickly with what the existing requirements are for using federal funds for transit agencies, certainly they’ll get a lot further,” she said.

In 2020, NEC ES announced it was backing out of the storage market, and LG Energy Solution acquired the subsidiary last fall.

Gompert says the change in the vendor’s circumstances created a “huge nightmare” that VTA is still working through. NEC ES, however, continues to support the three storage units, she said.

Three storage units “strengthen” transit operations, providing flexibility, resilience and the ability to store renewable energy generated on site. To support the transition of its 32-bus fleet from diesel to electric, the authority also installed eight solar canopies with 700 kW of generating capacity at its operations center.

“We have seen demand response savings from using the battery storage units, and they increase the distribution of our overall efficiency when charging all of the fleet at the same time,” she said.

As a component of the microgrid, storage makes grid-independent charging possible. The microgrid decides whether charging will be grid-to-bus, grid-to-battery, solar-to-battery or solar-to-bus, and if necessary, buses can charge from a backup diesel generator, Gompert said.

Other Challenges

VTA has replaced 16 of its diesel buses with BEBs manufactured by Los Angeles-based BYD, and there is one charger for each bus.

“Our operations maintenance center is fully ready to complete the buildout for all chargers for all our vehicles,” Gompert said. “Our next phase will be putting in some Level 3 charging as we expand into fleet replacement with our paratransit vans and minibuses.”

Malvern, Pa.-based Momentum Dynamics won a contract to install inductive (i.e., wireless), in-road charging pads along VTA’s bus routes, and construction is underway on the first pad site in Edgartown, she said. All the BEBs currently in service have charging pad retrofits for using the wireless charger.

The technical aspects of transitioning to BEBs and building the systems to support them have been a “heavy lift” for the authority because of the organization’s comparatively small size, Gompert said. VTA procured its BEBs, chargers, batteries, microgrid components and solar facilities under separate contracts and managed development and integration of the elements individually.

New energy-as-a-service models, Gompert said, could help other transit authorities with their BEB programs.

“Coordination of the partners and the system components is done as part of [energy-as-a-service] agreements,” she said.

Component software and hardware updates also present a challenge for the organization. If those updates are not well coordinated, the systems “can get out of sync,” which becomes “problematic,” Gompert said.

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Washington Lawmaker Wants to Study Battery Supply Chain Risks

A discussion among Washington legislators on a proposed study to inventory the lithium and rare minerals used to power electric vehicles segued into whether the report should include batteries found in auto junkyards.

That conversation took place Thursday during a Washington Senate hearing on a bill (SB 5526) calling for the state’s Department of Commerce to conduct a global study of the battery supply chain. The bill by state Sen. Phillip Fortunato (R) is in the Senate Business, Financial Services & Trade Committee.

The legislation calls for the Washington Department of Commerce to report the results of the study to the legislature by Dec. 31, 2023. The bill suggests that the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Joint Center for Deployment and Research in Earth Abundant Materials be used in the study.

At the hearing, Fortunato said he recently met with officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo who told him they were concerned about their nation running low on lithium and cobalt, which are major exports. He noted that China is becoming more of a global resource for rare minerals that are used in cellphones, computers and electric vehicles. That prompted the senator to get a better grasp on the availability of the resources.

“This simple bill says we have to get a handle on this,” Fortunato said. “As we move more toward electric cars and batteries, so is everyone else.”

Only one person testified at the hearing, Jim King, lobbyist for the Independent Business Association of Washington State. He said the study should look at the possibility of recycling EV batteries from auto wrecking yards.

These yards must either store the used batteries because there is no formal way to dispose of them or refuse to accept them for the same reason. “We don’t want this to be like nuclear energy, and all of a sudden decide we have a nuclear waste problem,” King said.

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Bill Seeks EV Chargers for Washington Apartment, Condo Dwellers

Roughly a third of Washington’s residents live in apartments, condominiums or residences governed by homeowner associations.

In policy jargon, these are dubbed “common interest communities.”

A bill to require that common interest communities “reasonably” allow electric vehicle charging stations has begun working its way through the Washington House. The bill (HB 1793) by Rep. David Hackney (D) went through a public hearing Tuesday by the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee, tallying three supporting and one neutral testifiers.

Hackney’s bill would require common interest communities to allow EV charging stations as long as applicants meet “reasonable” rules set by the apartment complex, condominium association or homeowners association. Applicants can be required to pay the installation and maintenance costs, a staff memo on the bill said.

Washington’s government has begun what will be a decades-long push to encourage residents to buy and use electric vehicles. Roughly 45% of the state’s greenhouse gases come from motor vehicles. The state’s heavy reliance on hydroelectric generation translates into an especially low relative share of emissions from the power sector compared with other states.

“Everyone in Washington should have the right to charge their electric vehicles,” Hackney said at Tuesday’s hearing. “Not everyone has access to reliable EV charging,” said Annabel Drayton, policy associate with the Northwest Energy Coalition.

Justin Wilson, director of public policy at ChargePoint, an EV charging network company, supported the bill, saying 85% of charging takes place at homes or workplaces.

Michael Brandt of the Washington chapter of the Community Associations Institute was neutral. The institute wants to see language installed concerning charging stations in common areas, insurance and the metering on the charging stations.

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NYISO Tweaks 2023 Project Prioritization Process

NYISO on Tuesday recommended ways to incorporate stakeholder feedback into its annual prioritization of internal projects and initiatives that will kick off next month, particularly those simplifying scoring methods and sharing priorities as soon as possible.

The feedback focused overall on project scoring and ways to make it better, Michael DeSocio, director of market design, told the Budget and Priorities Working Group (BPWG).

“We don’t have a specific a recommendation here today, but we agree with some of the feedback and think it’s probably the right time to revisit how the ISO scores are developed,” DeSocio said.

Stakeholders requested that NYISO identify project dependencies earlier in the process — whether doing one project would forego the opportunity to do others — and those that are urgent earlier, DeSocio said.

They also want the ability to have more discussions on priorities: not just project priorities, but also emerging or broader issues, he said.

There were also questions and concerns about modifications to the scope and milestones of a project after scoring is completed, and some suggested changes to how the ISO handles the “continuing” category, which contains items that remain on its to-do list from the previous year. Stakeholders commented that there need to be clear criteria for taking a project off the continuing list, such as dramatic increases in estimated costs or missing key milestones.

Project Dependencies

NYISO was mostly receptive to stakeholders’ suggestions. It recommended that it share project priorities earlier in the process as part of a revised and simplified scoring method and that it present urgent projects at the BPWG for discussion.

However, though it said it considered whether and how it can identify interchangeable project resource constraints, it said doing so would “undermine the purpose of the prioritization process and is not readily administrable.”

“Possibly dozens of combinations of projects can or cannot be done based on resources, costs and interest,” NYISO said. “NYISO believes that by sharing its project priorities earlier in the process, stakeholders will be better informed on conflicts earlier to allow for discussion about options both before and after project scoring.”

It’s often unclear how much an initiative or set of new market rules will cost until it fully understands the technical requirements for implementing them, DeSocio said, citing the development of rules for distributed energy resources.

“We moved ahead and developed some really good DER rules,” DeSocio said. “We started to put that out either to bid or to work with our platform vendor that helps us keep the software running for the energy market, and those costs came back and were very large.”

The ISO could just say the project is “continuing” and prioritize other projects around those costs, he said, but staff thought that it would be important to be able to share these updated costs with stakeholders before marking an effort as “continuing,” he said.

“We cannot absorb all of these costs in one year. Maybe we need to rethink how we roll this out and do so over the course of a couple of years so that we don’t impact the budget as much,” DeSocio said.

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Emissions from New England’s Power Generation Increased in 2021

Emissions from power generation in New England rose in 2021 compared to the average of the prior four years, as load increased and more natural gas was burned.

According to ISO-NE, the estimated CO2 emissions from generation in its footprint in 2021 were 30.9 million metric tons (MMT), 2.6% higher than the four-year average from 2017 to 2020 of 30.1 MMT.

Average Energy Fuel Type Usage (ISO-NE) Content.jpgNew England used more natural gas and fewer renewables in 2021 than the average of the previous four years. | ISO-NE

 

That increase was fueled by a 10% hike in emissions from natural gas-fired generation, which rose from 19.8 MMT to 21.8 MMT over the same time period.

As gas generation rose in 2021 to 54,229 GWh in New England — a roughly 5,000-GWh increase over the previous four-year average — renewable generation fell by about 2,500 GWh to 27,073.

In ISO-NE’s presentation from analyst Patricio Silva to the Planning Advisory Committee on Thursday, the RTO emphasizes that emissions are still steadily declining in the long term, from a peak in 2005, and that year-to-year trends have shown variability.

Estimated CO2 System Emissions (ISO-NE) Content.jpgEmissions from power generation in New England increased by 2.6% in 2021 compared to the average of the previous four years. | ISO-NE

But in 2021, “winter and summer air pollution spikes occurred due to continued reliance on fossil fired-generators for peaking service,” Silva said.

The RTO pointed to higher demand as part of the culprit for the higher carbon intensity and deeper environmental impacts.

Power generation reached 101,640 GWh in 2021, compared to a four-year average of 99,784 GWh. Net imports declined in 2021 to 21,891 GWh, down from the four-year average of 22,121 GWh.

The update did include one piece of good news: Nitrogen oxide emissions from power generation in New England continued to fall in 2021, declining 6% compared to the past five-year average. Sulfur dioxide emissions fell too, down 15% from the five-year average.

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No Net Zero Without Carbon Capture

For Anna Fendley of the United Steelworkers, carbon capture means the opportunity to clean up hard-to-decarbonize industries like steel and cement — and hold onto and expand union jobs.

To Tom Dower of LanzaTech, a carbon recycling company, it is a tremendous market for new products developed from captured carbon, from little black dresses and workout clothes to perfumes.

And for Collin O’Mara, CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, it is an essential part of the technological toolkit to get the U.S. to net zero. The 45Q tax credits in the Build Back Better Act could potentially increase the nation’s carbon capture capacity 13-fold, while taking 290 million metric tons of carbon out of the atmosphere per year, O’Mara said, citing figures from the Clean Air Task Force.

“It’s a huge wedge if you’re trying to get to net zero overall,” O’Mara told reporters during a Wednesday press call organized by the Carbon Capture Coalition, and he believes the 45Q tax credits in BBB have strong bipartisan support in the House of Representatives and the Senate. “This is not a controversial provision in terms of its inclusion in the final package. Really, we’re trying to make sure that there’s a lot of investment that flows in, that can take advantage of these [credits] and really get projects done at scale.

“Given the emissions that we have to reduce, we’re going to need every single solution, from renewables to carbon capture,” he said. “We’re still very confident that the Build Back Better package can move forward in the coming weeks and months.”

The bill stalled out in December after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) withdrew his support for the $2 trillion budget reconciliation package passed by the House, scuttling any hopes for passage in 2021 in the evenly divided Senate. The impasse has left an uncertain future for the bill’s tax credits for a range of no- and low-carbon technologies.

O’Mara, Fendley and Dower, and their organizations, are all members of the Carbon Capture Coalition, a broad-based, nonpartisan group that has pushed hard for a range of federal incentives for carbon capture, sequestration and utilization technologies. The organization scored a major victory with the passage of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Job Act, which includes $12.1 billion to support the development of large-scale commercial carbon capture projects, a network of CO2 pipelines and four regional hubs for direct air capture.

But 45Q is now the coalition’s top priority for 2022. The federal tax incentive dates back to 2008, with successive expansions and extensions in 2018 and 2020. At present, carbon capture projects that inject into oil wells for enhanced oil recovery receive credits that start at $10/metric ton, increasing over time to $35/MT, while the credit for carbon sequestered in salt caverns or other underground formations ranges from $20-$50.

To qualify for the credit, facilities must also meet certain annual thresholds — 500,000 MT per year for power plants, and 100,000 MT for direct air capture or other industrial facilities.

The revisions in BBB would raise the credit, based on the type of project, and lower the thresholds, said Madelyn Morrison, external affairs manager for the coalition. For example, carbon stored in geological formations would qualify for credits of $85/MT, and the credits for direct air capture projects would range from $130 to $180.

The proposed provisions slash capture thresholds to 18,750 MT annually for power plants, 12,500 MT for industrial facilities and 1,000 MT for direct air capture.

Morrison said the existing thresholds “serve no policy purpose. … We see it as locking a lot of potential good projects out of the marketplace because there are maybe projects that are just below that threshold that could be good candidates for 45Q. Even facilities that are just above those thresholds, if there are outages like we’ve seen during COVID or for other reasons, that makes it a much riskier proposition.”

She also argued that increased tax credits will motivate developers to maximize their emissions reductions.

Still another new provision, a direct pay option for 45Q, is “the most critical reform to unlock more robust investment and carbon capture projects,” Morrison said. “It’s much more efficient [and] cost effective, for both the project developer and the taxpayer.”

‘Where Should Carbon Come From?’

As outlined during the call, the coalition’s basic arguments for carbon capture are a pragmatic mix of environmental concerns — the U.S. will not get to net zero without it — and the economic opportunity for business and job growth.

Fendley, the USW’s director of regulatory and state policy, sees the passage of BBB and the 45Q tax credit as “a pivotal moment.”

“We’re finally at the point where we have the possibility to make this a different story, especially for the industrial sector, a real success story,” she said. “We have real potential to retain jobs in … steel and cement and refining and chemicals. We have a real opportunity to invest in the long-term viability of our industrial base, which is so important to our economy, and we have the opportunity to create jobs.”

LanzaTech is also focused on the hard-to-decarbonize industries, which “may have few options that are at a commercial scale,” said Dower, the company’s vice president of public policy.

“Society will still need basic materials and carbon-based products. So, the question that we bring to the table is where should carbon come from?” he said. “We believe carbon can come from above the ground in the form of captured carbon emissions, from the air through direct air capture and from wastes such as agricultural, forestry and municipal solid wastes. We can covert those into the products that are needed today in existing supply chains.”

For example, the company recently announced a partnership with the fashion retailer Zara for a “capsule collection” of clothing made from low-carbon polyester sourced from steel mill emissions.

‘A Dangerous Distraction’

Still, carbon capture remains a divisive issue in the environmental community. In addition to the National Wildlife Federation, the National Audubon Society and Environmental Defense Fund are listed as supporters on the coalition website. But, in July, more than 500 environmental organizations published an open letter to law makers in the U.S. and Canada, calling on them “to recognize that carbon capture and storage is not a climate solution. It is a dangerous distraction driven by the same big polluters who created the climate emergency.”

More recently, an analysis from the General Accounting Office reported that since 2009, the Department of Energy had invested $1.1 billion in 11 carbon capture projects, producing two projects that are still operational, one that ended operations in 2020 and eight that were not built. The GAO recommended better oversight and monitoring by both the DOE and Congress.

In response, Jessie Stolark, the coalition’s public policy and member relations manager, argued that the projects that failed were developed prior to the 2018 expansion of the 45Q tax credit and also did not have the additional federal support that they needed.

“As a result, these projects were unable to secure necessary private financing at a time when natural gas prices were falling and anticipated federal climate policy never materialized,” Stolark said in a statement on the coalition’s website.

Reporters’ questions during Wednesday’s press call largely focused on what kind of compromises or other options might be available to get Manchin’s support and get the budget reconciliation package through the Senate and to President Biden’s desk.

While maintaining that he still thinks BBB will “get done,” O’Mara said, “There are a lot of components of the climate package that have broad bipartisan support. Look at the investments in the forestry sector, investments in the agriculture sector, some of the investments in coastal resilience.

“I do think there’s a package,” he said. “But it’s likely in a smaller form and likely insufficient to meet the types of [emission] reductions that we’re going to need. That’s why we’re all in on trying to get it done through the reconciliation package because we need that predictability and that level of investment.”