July 28, 2010

Saskatchewan-Montana carbon capture proposal runs into finance roadblock

BILLINGS, Mon.

Money troubles have stalled indefinitely a proposal to capture carbon dioxide emissions from a Canadian coal plant and store the gas underground in Montana — a largely unproven concept considered key for addressing climate change.

Montana and Saskatchewan’s elected leaders had sought $100 million from each of their federal governments for the proposal, but have failed to deliver the money. It was billed as an industrial-scale test of technologies that could reduce carbon emissions from some of the 650 coal-fired power plants in the two countries. Coal power is the leading industrial source of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

But without money for construction, Montana’s sponsor in the proposal, the six-state Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership, is shifting its efforts to another carbon storage project, said partnership director Lee Spangler, a professor at Montana State University.

In Saskatchewan, officials say the province may now work without Montana on a scaled-down carbon capture proposal, using $50 million in provincial money.

“It’s got enough viability that we could go ahead without the Montana portion,’’ said the province’s energy minister, Bill Boyd.

The proposal called for retrofitting a SaskPower coal plant iwith equipment to capture 30 per cent of its carbon dioxide emissions.

More than 1 million tons of the gas would have been sent through 50 miles of pipelines ending in Montana, where the carbon dioxide was to have been injected deep underground for long-term storage.

The apparent derailing of that cross-border initiative comes 14 months after it was announced by Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.

At the time, Montana officials said they had requested an Obama administration stimulus grant to pay their half of the bill. But a formal application was never made, according to Spangler and Schweitzer aide Mike Volesky.

Those efforts were dropped after officials determined the carbon capture project did not qualify for the stimulus grants, Volesky and Spangler said.

In January, Spangler said, the Big Sky partnership applied for a $65 million grant through another Department of Energy Program. That application has since essentially been abandoned after the partnership could not come up with $35 million to cover the rest of the project costs.

“It is our assessment that this project, even though it’s a very good project, would take too much time to get together,’’ he said.

Spangler said the $65 million grant was being rewritten to be used on another project, also in Montana, that involves capturing carbon dioxide from a source other than a power plant.

Associated Press

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