Obama’s Race Against Time: The Climate Action Plan, and its impact on biofuels

Obama’s Climate Action Plan: What it Covers

The first section of The Climate Action Plan contains a comprehensive set of strategies and policy pronouncements aimed at reducing emissions that are believed to adversely affecting climate change. Two of the thirteen policy pronouncements relate directly to renewable energy, and are found under captions titled “Deploying Clean Energy” and “Cutting Carbon Pollution from Power Plants”.

The second section of The Climate Action Plan focuses on what the federal government can do in response to the effects of more extreme weather.

The third and final section of The Climate Action Plan focuses on what The Obama Administration plans to do on the international stage, such as seeking global free trade in environmental goods and clean-energy technologies such as solar and wind power.

Sections Specifically Impacting Biofuels Project Development

Realizing that almost 40 percent of the U.S.’s heat-trapping carbon emissions are expected to come from new and existing power plants, The Obama Administration indicated in its plan, that it will impose an expected timeline on EPA to promulgate regulations to restrict or curtail such emissions The EPA is already working with states, industry, and other stakeholders, to establish new carbon pollution standards. These new rules are expected to be similar to those that exist for toxins like mercury and arsenic. Because some of these new rules are expected to target existing power plants as well as new ones, it is expected that CO₂ emissions reductions of old coal-fired power stations will have to be achieved, either by curtailment of their power production, by sequester CO₂ emissions, and/or by using a less polluting fuel.

Observation: This later option could go a long way for creating demand for bio-fuels such as torrefied wood.

The Climate Action Plan includes other provisions for having the DOE make available to owners of coal fired power stations, an additional $8 billion in loan guarantees for “advanced fossil energy” and “energy efficiency” projects. These projects are broadly defined as upgrades that 1) improve power system efficiency, 2) capture CO₂ emissions; 3) reduce CO₂ emissions through use of “clean coal” or synthetic gas; and, 4) improve plant efficiency through use of better high-temperature materials, and improved turbine designs.

Observation: Option 3 appears to be the only one that could provide incentives for owners of older, less efficient coal fired power stations, to make modest capital investments needed to burn torrefied wood, a drop-in clean coal.