The Politics of Clean Coal Project
Lawmakers boosted financial incentives last year to lure such projects to Kentucky. And they're working on legislation this year that would extend eminent domain rights to pipeline companies that would dispose of carbon dioxide, one of the chief byproducts of converting coal to cleaner burning fuels.
That measure passed the House last week and is pending in the Senate.
Lawmakers have boasted that passing the pipeline measure would help put Kentucky out front in converting coal to cleaner-burning fuels and could help the state if federal regulators impose additional restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions.
Kentucky already allows the use of eminent domain for natural gas, oil and similar pipelines. The expansion would allow the proposed plants to pipe carbon dioxide to Texas to be injected underground.
This Business Week article covers a number of substantial issues. First, there is a fear in many communities that if their State does not take on the Clean Coal Project, it will simply go to an adjacent State.
Then there is the risk the federal government will come after the State unless it obtains additional restrictions on carbon dioxide emissions.
All this leads to the notion of carbon dioxide being injected underground. The advantage of transferring the carbon dioxide to Texas by pipe for underground injection is that carbon dioxide may be one of the newer tools to obtain additional oil out of the ground.
So there we have it, the States worrying that if they don’t have the coal gasification process in their State, it will simply be lost to another.
