Wyoming’s top energy development agency has recommended Gov. Mark Gordon allocate a combined $7.8 million in taxpayer money from the state’s Energy Matching Funds program to Rocky Mountain Power and one of its engineering partners. The Rocky Mountain Power and 8 Rivers projects slated for funding focus on building engineering designs to determine whether it is technically and economically feasible to retrofit coal-fired power plants with carbon capture to meet a controversial mandate imposed by the Legislature and championed by Gordon. The Wyoming Energy Authority, which vets Energy Matching Funds applications, has also recommended $4.7 million to HF Sinclair to upgrade and expand a gasoline-production unit at its Parco Refinery in Sinclair.  The agency provides only 10 days for public comment. Comments on the grant recommendations, which can be viewed at this link, can be submitted through Monday via email to [email protected]. Wyoming conservation groups have long criticized the state for its coal-carbon capture mandate, as well as utilities for dipping into Wyoming pockets to pay for it. At the Jim Bridger Plant, workers collect parts and equipment for a job on a coal grinder. The plant and associated mines employed about 800 people in 2019. (Angus M. Thuermer Jr./WyoFile) “PacifiCorp is an investor-owned utility backed by some of the wealthiest people in the world, including Warren Buffett,” Sierra Club Wyoming Chapter Director Rob Joyce said of the PacifiCorp/Rocky Mountain Power bid for Energy Matching Funds. “Their proposal to spend over $6 million in Wyoming taxpayer money just to test carbon capture technology at one of their oldest coal plants is dubious at best, especially on their proposed timeline. Wyoming’s dollars could be put to far better use by helping modernize our grid and investing in proven, cost-effective clean energy solutions.” The Legislature’s far-right faction, the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, has also criticized the policy. Earlier this year, the group attempted to de-fund the Energy Matching Funds program based on the repeatedly debunked claim that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions do not contribute to the climate crisis, and therefore, scrubbing carbon dioxide from Wyoming coal plants is unnecessary. Carbon capture proposals Rocky Mountain Power — a division of Buffett’s electric utility giant PacifiCorp — wants $6.3 million for its Jim Bridger Carbon Capture Front-End Engineering Design Study. The effort will help determine the economic and technical feasibility of retrofitting the two remaining coal-burning units at the 50-year-old power plant outside Rock Springs, the utility says. “The project will include the evaluation of processing the flue gas to achieve pipeline-ready CO2 and the transportation and storage of the CO2,” according to the project’s description. “If the results of the study are positive, there is regulatory support, and adequate partners, the project will proceed to the next phase of development.” A workers’ tricycle at the Jim Bridger Plant in 2019. (Angus M. Thuermer Jr./WyoFile) The company hopes to remove 90% “or more” of planet-warming carbon dioxide generated by the two coal-burning units, it said.  Earlier this year, Rocky Mountain Power announced it had signed an agreement with North Carolina-based 8 Rivers and South Korea’s SK Group to analyze the feasibility of applying carbon capture to its Wyodak coal-fired power plant near Gillette and the Dave Johnston coal plant outside Glenrock. 8 Rivers‘ $1.5 million pitch for Energy Matching Funds would support efforts to refine its Allam-Fetvedt Cycle method of capturing carbon dioxide from burning Wyoming coal, according to the company. “The technology captures nearly 100% of the carbon dioxide produced during the energy generation process,” 8 Rivers stated in its application. Rocky Mountain Power has said it continues to analyze the potential of applying carbon capture technologies to several of its coal-burning power units in the state, despite initial estimates of astronomical costs. Carbon capture mandate Wyoming is the only state to force electric utilities to either install carbon capture on existing coal-burning power plants or sell the facilities to a third party willing to do so. The effort is intended to extend the operational life of coal-burning power plants in the state as well as promote the technology to convince coal-burning utilities outside the state to keep buying Wyoming coal. Wyoming’s coal industry — a pillar of the state’s economy for decades — has been in significant decline since 2016 with grim prospects for the future. Utilities subject to the mandate may win an exemption if they convince state regulators that full engineering analyses prove carbon capture technically or economically infeasible.  Initial analysis by Black Hills Energy and Rocky Mountain Power — the only two Wyoming utilities subject to the mandate — have suggested it could cost $500 million to beyond $1 billion to retrofit each of the four coal-burning units now subject to Wyoming’s mandate, according to the companies. Those costs would be passed on to their Wyoming ratepayers, who’ve already experienced significant rate hikes in the recent past. PacifiCorp’s Dave Johnston coal-fired power plant just outside Glenrock is slated for retirement but proponents of carbon capture technology suggest a conversion could extend the life of one unit. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile) Their Wyoming customers are already paying to cover the cost of the utilities’ ongoing mandated engineering analysis without any guarantees the technology will ultimately be applied to the coal power plants. Black Hills Energy taps its Wyoming customers for an annual $1.1 million “low carbon” surcharge to cover the costs of the mandated feasibility studies, while Rocky Mountain Power customers pay an annual $2 million. “We’re being asked to pay for unproven research and development-type of projects that, at least at this time, do not show a viable path toward being implemented,” Office of Consumer Advocate Administrator Anthony Ornelas said in opposition to the surcharges in January. The partnership between 8 Rivers and Rocky Mountain Power is intended to shift a portion of those “upfront” analysis costs to 8 Rivers rather than leave the expense to Rocky Mountain Power to pass on to its ratepayers, according to 8 Rivers Vice President of Public Affairs Jennifer Diggins. And that includes applying for state and federal funds for carbon capture. “There are so many new mechanisms within the Department of Energy that we’re exploring,” Diggins told WyoFile. “We certainly hope we are able to partner with the federal government on grants because, with these projects that are first-of-a-kind, the way to make them economical is through things like the [Inflation Reduction Act] and then matching state and federal grants.” The Legislature passed Senate File 42 – Low-carbon reliable energy standards-amendments in March, which moved the compliance deadline for the carbon capture mandate back from 2030 to 2033. It also clarified that Wyoming ratepayers are on the hook for any uncovered costs of analyzing the feasibility of retrofitting coal plants and the cost of construction and operation. So far, Gordon has approved about $67.5 million in Energy Matching Funds grants, according to state data. The post Should taxpayers give $7.8M to corporations to comply with state’s coal-carbon capture mandate? appeared first on WyoFile .