Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal has high praise for the Senate and House leadership, who put carbon capture and sequestration bills on the fast track during a budget year. He spoke Monday in an exclusive interview with WyoFile.com.

   “I really appreciate what they’ve done,” said the governor, referring to members of the Management Council, which moved quickly on the governor’s request to create a select committee specifically to study carbon dioxide storage rights and related issues.

 

  Because Freudenthal’s request (in a June 4th letter to Senate President John Schiffer and House Speaker Roy Cohee) was not an interim topic, legislative leaders could easily have ignored the governor’s request.

   Instead, the Management Council quickly assigned the governor’s request to the Joint Judiciary Committee. Freudenthal also praised Speaker Pro Tempore Tom Lubnau, R-Gillette, for taking a personal interest in the issue, plowing through reams of reports and studies about carbon dioxide capture and sequestration in geologic formations.

 

   “Everybody stepped up and they worked these bills hard,” he said.

   “When I was in Washington, D.C. last week,” said Freudenthal, “people were talking in terms of years and decades to get things done. And here we did it in months. I’ll sign those bills tomorrow.”

 

   Tuesday, Gov. Freudenthal plans to sign House Bill 90/HEA 25 (carbon capture and sequestration) and House Bill 89/HEA 18 (ownership of subsurface pore space) at noon in the Capitol Rotunda. The two bills will put Wyoming out in front of all the other states and in front of federal regulations expected from the Environmental Protection Agency this summer. Basically, HB 90 charges the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality with regulating “geologic sequestration” of CO2. Companion bill HB 89 mandates that the surface owner owns below-ground “pore space” in which CO2 might be stored.

   Whatever rules and regulations the EPA or Congress may yet come up with, Gov. Freudenthal said he’s confident that Wyoming is headed in the right direction. That confidence was buttressed by a long conversation he had last week with John Bruton, the European Union ambassador to the United States. Europe sees carbon capture and sequestration as an essential element for energy and global warming policies, said the governor.

 

   Because the EU is ahead of the U.S. in this area, “we ought not reinvent the wheel,” said Freudenthal, adding that UW can build upon EU research.

   And that’s where the hard work of research comes in, said the governor. He’s looking at these two bills as just the beginning of a decades-long effort to pull research, emerging technology and regulations together, for the purpose of keeping Wyoming coal a viable player in future energy debates and policy.

 

   He said the partnership between the University of Wyoming and General Electric is essential in demonstrating that gasification of Wyoming coal is doable, before carbon capture sequestration is actively pursued.

   “It all goes together,” he said.

 

   Freudenthal called the bills “works in progress,” and is certain they’ll be amended in the future as the EPA and Congress come to grips with the issue.

   Wyoming legislators in both the Senate and the House spoke favorably of the legislation.

   “The coal train of the future may not look the coal train of today, but we’re still going to need to move coal. It might be in a pipeline or it might be through electricity – it will certainly look different than it does in 2008. But we’re still going to have to move coal,” said Senate President Schiffer.

   House Speaker Roy Cohee said that as a producer of carbon-based fuels, Wyoming has a lot at stake.

   “We can continue to be a part of the problem, perceived or not,” Cohee said. “Or, we can proceed to be a part of the solutions placed before us. HB 89 and HB 90 take Wyoming to the front of the discussion
of responsible mineral development.”

   Sen. Tony Ross, R-Laramie, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the legislation “visionary.”

   “This legislation will lay the groundwork for our minerals to compete on a global basis,” Ross said. “I applaud the efforts of my committee members who worked hard on this legislation in the interim.”

   Rep. Lubnau said “Our economy and national security depend upon the production of environmentally responsible and cost effective energy. Wyoming must continue nationwide leadership in energy production,” Lubnau said.
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