SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS BILL, 1985 REPORT [To accompany H.R. 2577] DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY FOSSIL ENERGY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT The Committee has developed the following clean coal technology project criteria in an effort to assist the Department in establishing criteria for eventual project selection, in the event that clean coal technology funds are appropriated. The Committee urges the Department to begin preparation of a competitive solicitation for clean coal technology demonstrations so that fiscal year 1986 funds, if provided, can be obligated in a timely manner. In conducting the solicitation, the Committee expects that it will be a full and open competition. The Committee further anticipates that the solicitation will be open to all market applications utilizing the entire coal resource base. Consideration also should be given to heavily regulated electric utilities and related industrial boiler markets. Eventual project selection should not be duplicative of current marketplace activities. The Committee considers the following criteria as representative of those to be used by the Department in the evaluation of proposals received under a full and open competitive solicitation. I. General project guidelines: 1. The project must demonstrate commercial feasibility of 4. The technology to be demonstrated should be available 6. The project sponsor(s) must have relevant experience and II. Subsequent applicability of the technology: 1. The clean coal technology to be demonstrated in either new or retrofit applications must provide significant potential for replication. 2. The project must provide useful technical, environmental, operational, performance, and economic data to reduce the uncertainties of subsequent commercial scale utilization of the technology. III. Technical feasibility: 1. Sufficient technical data (including data developed from pilot plant operations, if any) should be available to determine that the demonstration will have a significantly high probability of success. 2. The technology should have been successfully tested at the bench scale or subsequent stage of development. IV. Environmental benefits: 1. The commercial application of the clean coal technology 2. The commercial application of the clean coal technology 4. The amounts and characteristics of waste products must be identified and processes for proper handling and disposal (or utilization or regeneration) in an environmentally acceptable manner must be in the project proposal. V. Economic feasibility: 1. The projected commercial application should be economically attractive. 2. The project, where appropriate, should include characteristics which permit modularity, shop fabrication of transportable components, operating flexibility or maintainability and reliability of units, or other characteristics which permit shortened construction periods or lower overall capital costs for subsequent commercial projects. JOINT RESOLUTION Making continuing appropriations for the Fiscal Year 1985, and for other purposes. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY ENERGY SECURITY RESERVE (RESCISSION) Provided further, That of the $5,375,000,000 rescinded from the Energy Security Reserve, $750,000,000 shall be deposited and retained in a separate account hereby established in the Treasury of the United States, entitled the "Clean Coal Technology Reserve," which account and the appropriations therefor, shall be available for the purpose of conducting cost-shared clean coal technology projects for the construction and operation of facilities to demonstrate the feasibility for future commercial application of such technology, including those identified in section 320 of the fiscal year 1985 Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, as reported by the Senate Committee on Appropriations (H.R. 5973, Senate Report 98-578), without fiscal year limitation, subject to subsequent annual appropriation in the Department of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. TITLE III-GENERAL PROVISIONS SEC. 321. The Secretary of Energy pursuant to the Federal Nonnuclear Energy Research and Development Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-577), shall (1) no later than sixty days after the date of the enactment of this Act, publish in the Federal Register a notice soliciting statements of interest in, and proposals for projects employing emerging clean coal technologies, which statements and proposals are to be submitted to the Secretary within ninety days after the publication of such notice; and (2) no later than April 15, 1985, submit to Congress a report that analyzes the information contained in such statements of interest and proposals, assesses the potential usefulness of each emerging clean coal technology for which a statement of interest or proposal has been received, and identifies the extent to which Federal incentives, including financial assistance, will accelerate the commercial availability of these technologies. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES REPORT [To accompany H.R. 5973] The Committee has observed with disappointment the retreat from private sector plans for development of synthetic fuels over the last few years. Clearly there are many reasons why synthetic fuel technologies are not being commercialized at even a small fraction of the rate envisioned when the Energy Security Act was passed in 1980; among these are the lower than anticipated cost of alternative fuel resources in the near term, the higher than anticipated costs of some developing technologies, and the difficulty in raising the large capital sums required during a period of high interest rates. The overriding requirement to make this Nation's abundant supplies of coal, oil shale, and other resources available for use in an environmentally acceptable manner continues to be of high priority to the Committee. It is our belief that an aggressive, ongoing program of research, development, and where appropriate, testing, is essential to improve process efficiency, reduce capital costs, and enhance environmental performance of the various synthetic and other fossil energy technologies. The recommended program supports these goals and is necessary to help insure the energy security and energy independence of this Nation. The Committee has included a provision, section 320 of the general provisions, directing the Secretary of Energy to solicit statements of interest and proposals from the private sector for projects employing emerging clean coal technologies. The purpose of this provision is to (1) Identify emerging clean coal technologies that may be commercialized in the near term for reducing emissions from new and existing coal-burning powerplants and from industrial coal uses; and (2) Determine what incentives, including financial assistance, the Federal Government should provide to assure the earliest practicable commercial availability of these emerging clean coal technologies. These activities of the Secretary are authorized under sections 103 and 107(a) of the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974, and the Federal Nonnuclear Energy Research and Development Act of 1974 (Public Law 93-577). The Committee intends to base fiscal year 1986 appropriations decisions on funding for new projects under Public Law 93-577 on the results of this solicitation. Emerging clean coal technologies are technologies for using coal in electric utility and large industrial applications that reduce sulfur and other emissions resulting from such uses to levels that are required, or may be required, for compliance with the Clean Air Act, as amended. Examples of such emerging clean coal technologies include, but are not limited to the following: (1) advanced coal preparation and cleaning; (2) limestone injection multistage burners [LIMB]; (3) flue gas desulfurization processes that produce only dry discharges; (4) regenerable flue gas desulfurization; (5) furnace retrofit of in-boiler sulfur control technology: (6) atmospheric fluidized bed combustion systems of a size appropriate to the electric utility market; (7) repowering applications of a pressurized fluidized bed in a large oil-fired boiler; (8) phosphoric acid fuel cell systems using coal-derived gas; (9) coal-fired gas turbines in second-generation combined-cycle systems; and (10) low cost, easily replicable, sources of fuel gas for multimarkets. Proposed projects solicited under this provision should be large enough to demonstrate commercial feasibility of the technology or, if not, at least permit rapid scaleup to commercial size. Statements of interest submitted to the Secretary under this provision shall propose a project employing at least one emerging clean coal technology and shall include: (1) a description of the technology to be employed and of the overall project; (2) a comparison of the proposed project with any similar project or facility in existence; (3) the proposed ownership of the project facility; (4) the projected capital, operating, and testing cost and a schedule for construction and testing of the project facility; (5) the characteristics of the coal to be used; (6) the emissions reductions to be achieved by the facility: (7) the proposed financing of the project, including a statement of any cost sharing or incentives, including any financial assistance, that should be provided by the Federal Government and the justification for such incentives; (8) a statement of the project economics which identifies the assumptions used; and (9) a plan which outlines the uses for the products of the proposed facility. The Secretary is required to submit to Congress no later than April 15, 1985, a report analyzing the information received in the statements of interest and proposals under this provision, assessing the potential usefulness of each technology for which a statement of interest or proposal has been received, and identifying the extent to which Federal incentives will accelerate the commercial availability of these technologies for electric utility and large industrial uses of coal. |