Article published Oct 30, 2007

Climate Act could have impact on coal plant

By KARL PUCKETT

Tribune Staff Writer

U.S. Sen. Max Baucus quoted the Bible last week when he announced his support for a major bill, called America's Climate Security Act, to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The country, he said, has a "moral imperative" to address climate change.

Back home in Montana, there are believers and disbelievers.

Supporters say the legislation could lead to a brand new revenue source in the marketing of stored carbon for agriculture producers who practice "no till," while providing incentives to coal-fired power plants to pollute less.

Those who oppose it, however, argue the bill doesn't go far enough in reducing climate-changing emissions.

For his part, the state's senior senator called the Lieberman-Warner climate bill "a reasonable approach" that not only deals with climate change but also protects Montana's vast coal resources.

Protecting the environment, he said, is scripturally based.

"The book of Genesis tells us 'that The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate and care for it,'" Baucus testified last week before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. "Montanans take God's call to be good stewards very serious."

The bill was introduced by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, and Virginia Republican John Warner. Baucus, a swing vote on the issue, is considered important to its fate.

The bill's aim is to cut greenhouse gas emissions, beginning in 2012, by as much as 63 percent below 2005 levels. That would be achieved by 2050 by placing caps on emissions.

But Anne Hedges of the Helena-based Montana Environmental Information Center said the bill is "designed to fail." Scientists have concluded global emissions need to be reduced by 80 percent by 2050 and the Lieberman-Warner bill doesn't contribute enough toward that target.

She noted that rural electric utilities also would be given more emissions "allowances" over time than companies in the private sector, which MEIC opposes.

With global warming pressing, there's no time to make initial mistakes that can be corrected later, which she said was the case with previous environmental legislation such as the Federal Clean Air.

"We have to get this one right the first time out," she said.

The proposed legislation provides incentives to encourage industry — such as the operators of coal-fired power plants — to install equipment to capture and sequester carbon dioxide.

There are 120 billion tons of coal reserves in Montana, tops in the nation, and six coal-fired power plants with more in the planning stages including Highwood Generating Station east of Great Falls.

"We must develop carbon capture and sequestration technology here so that we can use it domestically, as well as abroad," Baucus said of the country's coal resources.

Tim Gregori, the chief executive officer of Highwood developer Southern Montana Electric Generation and Transmission, said financial incentives to install carbon capturing equipment are critical. The installation drives up capital costs and also uses additional electricity when operational, he said.

And if the new rules are passed, they should come at the federal level so the playing field is level, said Bud Clinch, executive director of the Montana Coal Council,

"I don't think this bill or approach will be the demise of coal or coal mining," he said.

The legislation would set up a system of allocating pollution allowances that could be bought and sold.

One allowance would equate into the authorization to emit one metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent during in a single compliance period. Companies that released more than permitted could purchase "offsets" from companies that had cut their emissions below the required cap.

One company could purchase up to 15 percent of its offsets from agricultural producers.

"Agriculture can play a very beneficial role in producing offsets to these utilities that have to reduce their emissions," said Will Roehm, who testified on the legislation's behalf last week in Washington, D.C. at Baucus' request.

Roehm, who is vice president of the Montana Grain Growers Association, said grain growers that practice no-till farming conserve carbon. Under the bill, they could earn credits for that conservation and sell them. Some forecasts have shown the credits could sell for $10 to $20 a ton, "which is a pretty good return," he said.