Environmental Issues

Meeting the Dual Challenge: A Roadmap to At-Scale Deployment of Carbon Capture, Use, and Storage (2019)

Carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS) is essential to meeting the dual challenge of providing affordable, reliable energy while addressing the risks of climate change at the lowest cost. The United States is uniquely positioned as the world leader in CCUS, with approximately 80% of the world’s CCUS capacity and substantial capability to drive widespread deployment in the United States and abroad.

Building on expertise and previous research, Meeting the Dual Challenge addresses the entire CCUS supply chain and recognizes that at-scale success requires economic and operational integration across industries, harmonized local/state/federal regulations, innovation and technology development, and broad public acceptance. The report details the actions needed to deploy carbon capture technologies at scale in the United States, an essential climate mitigation technology identified in the majority of global energy outlooks.

In the interest of transparency, and to help readers better understand this study, the NPC is making the study results and many of the documents developed by the study groups available to all interested parties. This comprehensive report provides interested parties with the ability to review this report and supporting materials in different levels of detail as follows:

Volume I, Summary of Findings and Recommendations, includes the report transmittal letter, outline of the entire report, preface, executive summary, roadmap for enabling the widespread implementation of CCUS at scale, a complete list of the detailed recommendations of the study, and appendices providing the study request letter, NPC rosters, and study group rosters. This volume provides two levels of summarization:

  • Report Transmittal Letter is the first layer, which submits the report to the Secretary of Energy as the Council’s response to his request for advice on carbon capture, use, and storage. It provides a very brief, high-level overview of the report’s key messages.
  • Executive Summary is the second layer and provides a broad overview of the study’s principal findings and resulting recommendations for enabling the widespread implementation of CCUS at scale.

Volume II, Analysis of CCUS Deployment At-Scale, provides more detailed discussion and additional information on the study’s deployment at-scale analyses:

  • Chapters 1-4 provide discussions and background on the study assessments of CCUS deployment. The four chapters in this volume address the role of CCUS in the future energy mix; CCUS supply chains and economics; policy, regulatory, and legal enablers; and building stakeholder confidence. These chapters provide supporting data and analyses for the findings and recommendations presented in the Executive Summary.
  • Appendices in this volume provide background material including CCUS project case studies and an assessment of the economic impacts of CCUS deployment.

Volume III, Analysis of CCUS Technologies, provides an overview and detailed discussions of the technologies used in the CCUS supply chain.

  • Chapters 5-9 provide more detailed discussion and additional information on CCUS technologies. The five chapters in this volume address the capture, transport, geologic storage, enhanced oil recovery, and use of CO2. These chapters provide supporting data and analyses for the findings and recommendations presented in the Executive Summary.
  • Appendices in this volume provide additional background material on CO2 capture and enhanced oil recovery.

Topic Papers provide a final level of detail for the reader. These papers, developed or used by the study’s Task Groups, Subgroups, and Teams, are included on the NPC website. They were used in the development of the full report.

The Council believes that these materials will be of interest to the readers of the report and will help them better understand the results. The members of the NPC were not asked to endorse or approve all of the statements and conclusions contained in the topic papers but, rather, to approve the publication of these materials as part of the study process. As such, statements and suggested findings that appear in the topic papers are not endorsed by the NPC unless they were incorporated into the report.

Cost Curve Model. A differential feature was to assess the costs to capture, transport, and store CO2 from all sectors and fuel types, covering the largest facilities and a total of approximately 80% of all U.S. stationary sources. Using “reference cases” and standard economic assumptions was essential to developing the cost curve, formulating recommendations, and assessing the potential impact of those recommendations on CCUS deployment at a national level.

The cost assessment tool used to generate the Cost Curve will allow readers to change the cost and financial assumptions to generate their own view of costs.

Printed report:

Volume I – Summary of Findings and Recommendations (96 pages) –
Print-on-demand version is available for purchase from Amazon

Volume II – Analysis of CCUS Deployment At-Scale (148 pages) –
Print-on-demand version is available for purchase from Amazon

Volume III – Analysis of CCUS Technologies (230 pages) –
Print-on-demand version is available for purchase from Amazon

View/Download report:

Click here to view/download .pdf versions of each report.


The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 – Issues and Solutions (1994)

This report presents the Council’s findings regarding the implementation of financial responsibility provisions of the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) as they relate to offshore facilities. The Council has concluded that, properly implemented, OPA could safeguard the public interest by improving oil spill prevention and response without undue harm to the oil and gas industries. However, regulations similar to those outlined by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) in its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking could have serious and substantial impacts on all segments of the oil and gas industries and disrupt commerce in many other areas.

The report examines the issues involved including: (1) a legal background and history; (2) the potential impacts on U.S. oil and gas production; and (3) impacts on the insurance and financial communities, and other parties. The report presents potential solutions that can be implemented by the MMS and makes recommendations to the Secretary of Energy. Specifically, the report discusses the flexibility available to the MMS in five critical interwoven areas of the OPA financial responsibility rulemaking: 

  • Risk basing the $150 million financial responsibility level
  • The implementation of a de minimis provision
  • The definition of “guarantor”
  • New criteria for self-insurance including membership in an MMS-approved mutual loss funding agreement
  • The interaction of OPA’s financial responsibility regulations with state requirements.

Printed report: (208 pages) Price: $25.00

Click here to view/download .pdf version of final report (10.9 MB)


Environmental Conservation –
The Oil and Gas Industries
(1981-82)

The report considers three principal areas: current industry operations and the facilities and procedures that are used to protect the environment; the specific areas of environmental law and regulation that have directly affected the availability and cost of petroleum products and natural gas; and significant environmental issues of the 1980s.

The report is presented in two parts: the Overview volume published by the NPC in December 1981; and a more detailed volume describing petroleum industry operations and their relationship to environmental quality, which was published by the NPC in mid-1982. The latter volume contains extensive notes and references and is indexed to facilitate its use as a reference document.

1981 - (126 pages) Price: $18.00

Click here to view/download .pdf version of printed report (4.2 MB)

1982 - (688 pages) Price: $36.00

Click here to view/download .pdf version of printed report (23.7 MB)


updated 3/31/21

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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