Carbon storage bill to become a law

March 03--Rep. Brent Yonts' House Bill 259, called the carbon dioxide storage bill, is now ready for the governor's signature.

Yonts said the legislation will be good for Kentucky coal as it sets the stage for up to five projects to demonstrate and, he hopes, prove the technology of storing carbon dioxide generated by coal plants and other coal projects.

"It's going to put us in the driver's seat on this new technology," Yonts, a Greenville Democrat, said Wednesday.

The bill also is important in a broader sense, he said.

"The federal government, or the EPA independently, is going to mandate that something be done to CO2 as it relates to the burning of coal," Yonts said.

The legislation continues the efforts lawmakers made in 2007 with HB 1, which included major incentives to entice energy industry projects that are "carbon-capture ready," he said.

The ConocoPhillips and Peabody Energy coal-to-natural gas plant planned for Muhlenberg County could qualify as one of the demonstration projects under HB 259 if the companies choose to apply,

"This enables them and others to seek private and federal dollars for proving the technology," Yonts said.

If the technology is proven, manufacturing facilities that emit carbon dioxide into the air, like coal-burning plants, could store these emissions underground.

The government would oversee the permitting and monitoring of the CO2 reservoirs for decades, the representative said.

The testing was tried in Hancock County when researchers with the Kentucky Geological Survey injected carbon dioxide into a well built on a southeastern Hancock County farm.

Survey teams had other test sites as well.

That project did work, Yonts said.

"But they were using commercial CO2, and that is expensive," he said.

Senate Bill 50, is another piece of the process, Yonts said. That legislation would allow carbon dioxide to be transported to storage in Kentucky. It would apply the same eminent domain rules affecting natural gas pipelines and electric lines to carbon dioxide pipelines.

The bill has passed both chambers.

Rights to the storage space underground would be negotiated with land or lease holders.

Carbon dioxide would not be injected into pore space that contains recoverable minerals with economic value, like coal, Yonts said.

So far, Montana and North Dakota are the only other two states to adopt similar legislation.

"This bill was worked over for about three years," Yonts said. "We restructured it this year as an economic development bill."

He credits a host of agencies for working on it.

Joy Campbell, 691-7299, jcampbell@messenger-inquirer.com

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