A bill introduced by New Mexico Senator and Energy and Natural Resources committee chairman Jeff Bingaman proposes support for 10 large scale CCS demonstration projects. If the bill is passed, researchers would have the opportunity to gain valuable experience with CCS technology and techniques that could help the processes become cost-effective within 10 years, according to Scott Klara, deputy director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).

This bill would supplement the research being conducted under NETL's Clean Coal Power Initiative, which backs five CCS projects that are expected to be operational by 2015.

At a hearing about the bill, Matt Watson, senior energy policy manager at the Environmental Defense Fund, stated that the "on the ground technical experience" provided by the bill could allow researchers to develop “a robust and well-calibrated suite of risk management options”.

In an important statement about responsibility, the bill proposes that project developers would need to seek private liability protection, because the federal government would not provide indemnification for gross negligence or intentional misconduct.

For more about the senate energy committee hearings about support for proposed CCS projects, click here for the article on argusmedia.com.