More On Carbon Capture:Freudenthal signs landmark 'carbon capture' bills
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CHEYENNE, Wyo. (The Associated Press) - Mar 4 - By BEN NEARY Associated Press Writer
Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed two measures into law Tuesday that resolve ownership and regulation issues critical to the state's effort to lead the way on developing technologies to capture carbon gas and other emissions from coal-fired power plants.
Freudenthal and top state lawmakers say enacting the two carbon-capture laws puts Wyoming, the nation's top coal-producing state, at the forefront of efforts to combat global warming.
"It is clear that these two pieces of legislation are the most thorough pieces of legislation passed anywhere in the country," Freudenthal said at Tuesday's bill signing.
One of the bills signed by Freudenthal specifies owners of the land surface also have underground storage rights. The other bill sets up a state regulatory framework for carbon sequestration projects. Both laws will take effect July 1.
Freudenthal wrote to legislative leaders last year, urging them to act to settle the ownership and regulation questions.
Rep. Tom Lubnau, R-Gillette, researched and wrote the storage ownership bill. He said Tuesday that carbon-capture techniques have been in use for decades in oil-recovery projects that involve injecting carbon dioxide into the ground.
Technology for capturing smokestack emissions from coal plants is still developing, but is gaining support due to concerns over global warming. Coal-fired power churns out about two billions tons of greenhouse gases annually.
General Electric Co. announced last month that it has signed a letter of intent with the University of Wyoming to develop a coal research plant in the state. Company and state officials said the planned $100 million facility could be operating by 2010.
Lubnau, an attorney, said Wyoming doesn't currently intend to demand power plants in the state use carbon-capture technology. He said the state is not a big enough generator of electricity to effect a change in the nation's entire market for power.
However, Lubnau that if Wyoming plants start using the carbon-capture technology, the state will be able to market its electrical power as a "value-added" product that would command a premium price, particularly in California's huge market.
California has been pushing to cut greenhouse gases and has been pressuring the Environmental Protection Agency for permission to enact its own limits on automobile emissions of carbon dioxide and other pollutants.
Lubnau said he and other legislators recently traveled to California with Freudenthal to meet with public utility officials there to discuss business prospects.
"Some of the other states - New Mexico and Idaho - have committees that are studying the issue," Lubnau said of carbon-capture. "But nobody else has come to grips with the real issues about ownership and regulation. So we're far out ahead of everybody. We're a role model."
Lubnau said the Wyoming Legislature will continue working on the issue beyond the legislative session that ends this week.
Wyoming still needs to iron out legal questions, such as what happens when the dominant legal right to develop minerals on a particular piece of land collides with the landowner's right to store carbon underneath, Lubnau said. The state also needs to address the question of what happens if carbon stored underground migrates under neighboring parcels of land.
Lubnau credited Rep. Mary Throne, D-Cheyenne, for drafting the carbon regulation bill. It will require state permission for underground carbon storage and calls on state agencies to devise bonding requirements for companies.
House Speaker Roy Cohee, R-Casper, said the bills will prove critical to the state's future.
"We have to develop our mineral resources," Cohee said. "We've been a mineral developer for 100 years, and we'd like to be a mineral developer for another 100 years."