Analysis of Carbon Capture and Sequestration Pore Space Legislation: A Review of Existing and Possible Regimes

Liability coverage for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is of paramount importance if the industry is going to mature and develop in a way that will allow it to make a significant contribution to mitigating climate change. Liability for CCS can be broken into two phases – short-term, which covers the pre-injection, injection, and closure stages of the project, and long-term, which covers the post-closure stage. Since pre-injection, injection, and closure occur over a relatively short period of time that may cover 20-30 years, typical liability instruments like private insurance, letters of credit, performance bonds, trust funds, and escrow accounts may be utilized. For the post-closure phase, which lasts indefinitely after the site has been closed, more enduring liability instruments must be used in order to ensure that adequate and long-lasting coverage is provided. Several states have created liability schemes to cover long-term liability, but most of these schemes are incomplete and may lead to confusion over who is responsible for damages and remediation if they are utilized. This paper discusses possible liability schemes, critically analyzes those schemes currently in place, and proposes the best possible choice for long-term coverage of geological sequestration

White Certificate Trading: A Dying Concept or Just Making Its Debut? Part III: Future Market Potential in the U.S.

Challenges to white certificate markets are formidable, but they are not insurmountable, as demonstrated by successful white certificate schemes worldwide. This article discusses the future potential for these certificates in the U.S. A promising development that could affect implementation of a white certificate-type instrument is the inclusion of an instrument called an emission rate credit in the proposed Clean Power Plan. Other potential drivers include energy efficiency resource standards and voluntary markets

White Certificate Trading: A Dying Concept or Just Making Its Debut? Part II: Challenges to Trading White Certificates

This article addresses the major challenges to trading white certificates, identify why these obstacles exist, and how successful white certificate markets have addressed these potential problems. Among the challenges are defining a white certificate (including whether it meets the standard of being real, additional, permanent, verifiable, and enforceable) and identifying who owns them and how they are tracked

Analysis of Carbon Capture and Sequestration Pore Space Legislation: A Review of Existing and Possible Regimes

State-level CCS legislation, especially related to pore space designation, has blossomed over the last few years. However, the legislation that has passed does not yet provide an environment that would lead to the successful commercialization of CCS. Allowing the federal government to assume pore space ownership would not solve all the problems, but would certainly simplify some of them by reducing the amount of future litigation.

Unveiling Assigned Amount Unit (AAU) Trades: Current Market Impacts and Prospects for the Future

The sale of assigned amount units (AAUs) from countries whose emissions have declined since their baseline year under the Kyoto Protocol has led critics to be skeptical of carbon markets due to the lack of actual emission reductions that occur as a result of these trades. This policy review describes the historical context of AAU trading, current market price and volumes, and environmental and economic impacts of the current AAU trading rules. Options for how to handle current, and prevent the creation of future, surplus AAUs are discussed

White Certificate Trading: A Dying Concept or Just Making Its Debut? Part I: Market Status and Trends

Energy-saving certificate trading programs within the U.S. have not had the success of their counterparts abroad due to the energy efficiency reduction targets not being stringent enough to incite trading. Programs exist in Italy, Denmark, France, the UK and Australia, and each is unique in what it allows to qualify, its units, and other details. The Italian market is the most robust in terms of volumes traded, but programs in Australia are strong and growing

Assessment of Carbon Capture and Sequestration Liability Regimes

Liability coverage for CCS is of paramount importance if the industry is going to mature and develop in a way that will allow it to make a significant contribution to mitigating climate change. Very few of the liability schemes that have thus far been implemented, with the exception of the schemes in Alberta, North Dakota, and Montana, cover post-closure, long-term liability in a comprehensive way. As a result, these incomplete liability schemes are likely to cause confusion, misunderstandings, and litigation as they are implemented.

Economic Viability of Light Water Small Modular Nuclear Reactors: General Methodology and Vendor Data

Increasing global energy demand coupled with the need to reduce carbon and other greenhouse gases make investments in new carbon-free energy technologies more important than ever. One promising new technology is light water small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). Their relatively small size, modular design, reduced construction times, enhanced safety and other features make them a potentially attractive energy source. A critical element in assessing their potential for future development, however, is their economic viability relative to other energy sources. The most common metric to assess a power system’s economic viability is the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). The LCOE method allows comparisons across energy producing technologies with different capital, operating, fuel, and other costs as well as different levels of power produced and operating horizons. The manufacture, construction and other initial capital costs loom large in LCOE calculations. To date, however, there has been substantial uncertainty regarding these capital costs for SMRs and, as a result, attendant uncertainty about the economic viability of SMRs relative to other energy sources. In order to reduce this uncertainty, this research provides a general framework for estimating the direct and indirect costs of producing SMRs. This study incorporates detailed cost data from a major developer of small modular reactors, NuScale LLC to provide direct and indirect capital cost estimates of the NuScale SMR and cost comparisons with conventional large-scale nuclear power plants. These comparisons illustrate that design simplification, reduced componentry, modularity, and other features of the SMR design result in significant savings in overall base costs. These cost estimates provide strong evidence that SMRs have the potential to be economically competitive with other energy sources while at the same time yielding significant benefits in terms of reducing carbon emissions from power generating facilities