By Scott Allen
This workshop was in some ways a Part II to the previous “alternative fuels” workshop in that it also focused on what I’ll call “Carbonization Pathways.” I give it that label, because, aside from the University of Illinois Chicago, none of the presenters from the last two meetings seemed to have any intent to decarbonize. Here was the lineup for the latest workshop:
- The Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois presented on Carbon Capture Utilization and Sequestration (CCUS);
- The Energy Resource Center at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) presented on Combined Heat and Power (CHP);
- GTI (formerly the Gas Technology Institute) presented on “additional decarbonization technologies;” i.e. gas heat pumps.
You can view all the Jan. 27 presentations here, but my main concern coming out of this workshop is with the way Prairie Research Institute (PRI) talked about CCUS. So I will concentrate on that. As far as GTI and their “additional decarbonization technologies” are concerned, I don’t feel like it’s worth giving any more attention to gas-testing facilities or the wild ideas they dream up. (But, if they’re going to keep a cozy relationship with gas, I suggest they regularly test the batteries in their carbon monoxide detectors.)
Carbon Capture Utilization and Sequestration has been a contentious policy issue in Illinois since the Inflation Reduction Act increased the value of the 45Q tax credit. It isn’t that CCUS projects didn’t exist in the state, or were being explored prior to that, but it’s the fact that pollution became a more valuable commodity. Suddenly, polluters from around the country were eyeballing huge swathes of central and southern Illinois as a place to dump their byproducts, and the Prairie Research Institute was leading the charge to encourage them. For more than a year at the tail end of the COVID pandemic, it was hard to miss a webinar from PRI not only extolling the benefits of carbon capture technology, but also showing illustrated maps of Illinois’ unique geology.
Fortunately, Gov. Pritzker last summer signed the SAFE CCS Act, which took steps toward disincentivizing private investment in CCUS and banned the use of sequestered carbon for “enhanced oil recovery.” (Historical note: Carbon capture technology was originally conceived and funded so that the captured carbon could be used to more efficiently extract oil). The Act also banned pipelines until July of 2026 (or until new federal safety rules are established, whichever comes first), and it created some landowner protections, monitoring requirements and assurance that the State never takes ownership of sequestered carbon dioxide. However, in my mind it fell short of protecting aquifers and environmental justice communities. It also didn’t seem to have much of an effect on PRI’s efforts to make sure that Illinois’ two most prominent publicly-owned coal plants are further subsidized so that PRI can prove that carbon capture on coal plants is a worthwhile pursuit.
What does any of this have to do with decarbonizing the gas distribution system? Doesn’t matter. This presentation was simply another opportunity for PRI to talk about the “carbon capture value chain,” and once again highlight the demonstration project it designed for the City of Springfield’s Dallman 4 coal plant – a project that nobody asked for, but everybody paid for. There’s a reason that industries in Illinois love to endorse PRI’s research: it allows them to keep doing what they do without investing in cleaner processing. On the bright side, the captured carbon can be used to make algae, which presumably the City of Springfield would sell as a fertilizer. (Whew, I can sleep soundly now. In all my years living in Springfield, there’s nothing I wanted more than for City Water, Light and Power to figure out how to open up another revenue stream.)
None of this is to say that there is absolutely no value in capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide. For processes that will inevitably generate carbon dioxide because there are no alternatives, we should invest public resources into safely capturing and sequestering. However, corporations like British Petroleum, Shell Oil, etc. have lobbied hard to make CO2 production profitable via federal tax credits; i.e. public subsidies. They’ve built themselves a lifeline to squeeze every last dime out of their assets rather than investing in a clean energy transition, and Nicor, Peoples, North Shore, Ameren and MidAmerican will happily take advantage of the tax code to do the same for themselves. After all, as I mentioned earlier, CCUS technology wasn’t invented to prevent climate change–it was invented purely for commercial purposes.
Whether and where CCUS can be applied for the benefit of society rather than for the benefit of industry doesn’t appear to be of much concern to PRI. Or if it is, they have a funny way of showing it. The institute spends most of its time talking about the Springfield coal plant project and insists that they can be the first to make it work. But CCUS used on coal plants has failed more than once, and taxpayers and ratepayers continue to get soaked–all in an effort to avoid transitioning away from fossil fuels. I asked PRI how much public money it has asked for and spent on these kinds of projects. The answer was “hundreds of millions.”
If there is in fact a beneficial use of CCUS, and if CCUS is the only alternative for some sectors of the economy, then it should be mandatory for polluting industries to implement CCUS, at shareholders’ expense. At the very least, we should not be providing subsidies that incentivize the injection of carbon dioxide into Illinois’ geology. The Future of Gas proceeding so far has not hosted a single presentation that proved how society benefits more from the capture and storage of pollution than from the rapid cessation of creating that pollution. But that’s not from lack of trying by fossil fuel interests.
For a more in-depth, technical analysis of topics covered in this workshop, we will share a summary from Saad Siddique of the Environmental Law & Policy Center.
Stay tuned for more updates and check out our ICC Future of Gas page for more information.
