Last week, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced it would suspend funding for the Hydrogen Energy California (HECA) project in Kern County, California. The project received funding in the 2009 stimulus that was intended to support the commercialization of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. In February, DOE took the welcome step of withdrawing nearly $1 billion in stimulus funds from FutureGen 2.0, another CCS project. Today, TCS issued the following statement on the suspension of funds:
Taking a step in the right direction, the Department of Energy (DOE) has made the sensible decision to suspend any further funding for Hydrogen Energy California (HECA). The project was one of several chosen to receive Recovery Act funds through DOE’s fateful Clean Coal Power Initiative. Like FutureGen and other carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects, HECA was never worthy of taxpayer support. The huge costs associated with unproven CCS technology have always undermined its commercial viability. But instead of facing the facts, DOE squandered millions and waited until last week to halt HECA’s funding, reportedly to “protect taxpayer money.” The move is a day late and now taxpayers are $153 million dollars short. If the department really wants to protect taxpayers, it should take the remaining $250 million for the project completely off the table and cancel all further funding for speculative CCS technology.
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