INDIANAPOLIS (September 3, 2008) -- Governor Mitch Daniels today asked participants at an energy summit to help the state develop a regulatory and policy framework that will facilitate the state becoming a leader in the use of carbon capture and sequestration technology.

During opening remarks today to about 150 people attending the two-day summit, Daniels said the state needs to move quickly to participate in the opportunities presented by increasing demands and requirements for green energy. Indiana is enthusiastic about all forms of energy development and moving ahead in areas such as wind and biofuels, said the governor, but he noted that because coal is such an abundant natural resource here, the state must be  positioned to be a leader in the new era of clean coal, which includes the capture and storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions created by the burning of that fossil fuel.

"Carbon capture and sequestration is a very strong possibility in our energy future. If we move into a clean coal era, we must be ready to know how," said Daniels. Indiana has the potential for two facilities that will be carbon capture ready with the Duke Energy Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle plant under construction in Edwardsport and a planned synthetic natural gas plant in Southwest Indiana.

One of the most regular criticisms of coal as a source of energy is that it generates large amounts of greenhouse gases like CO2.  Even clean coal plants, which have significantly reduced other pollutants through scrubbers and other technologies, still produce CO2 when they burn coal.  Capturing this CO2 and storing it beneath the ground in appropriate geological formations offers the possibility of using this abundant and relatively inexpensive fuel source well into the future.

"We don't know what an appropriate regulatory, legal or administrative framework ought to look like for the carbon capture era. This meeting gives us the chance to start to set up reasonable regulatory arrangements," said Daniels, who added that Indiana has a chance to avoid some of the wasted time, money and opportunities that have occurred with decisions about energy production in the past.

Jim Rogers, Duke Energy CEO, and former Senator J. Bennett Johnston, of Louisiana, past chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also spoke at the opening session of the summit.

Representatives from the energy, business, environmental, industrial and academic communities are participating in the two-day summit on the Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis campus.

Audio of the governor's remarks at the conference may be found at this link:

http://www.in.gov/gov/files/Audio/090308_CarbonCaptureSummit.MP3

 

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