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Troubled Coal-Fired Plant Could Get New Lifeline
Troubled Coal-Fired Plant Could Get New Lifeline
Congress weighs tax-credit incentives that could benefit Southern Co. project
By Rebecca Smith
rebecca.smith@wsj.com
Updated Dec. 21, 2016 10:47 a.m. ET
The most expensive fossil-fuel power plant ever built in the U.S. could soon get a financial lifeline thanks to President-elect Donald Trump, who has signaled interest in clean-coal initiatives as a way to preserve mining jobs.
Buoyed by Mr. Trump’s enthusiasm for the U.S. coal industry, several congressional proposals seek to boost tax breaks for facilities that can capture carbon dioxide, a dangerous greenhouse gas that is a byproduct of fossil-fuel combustion, and offer it to the oil industry for injection underground to stimulate production. The biggest winner—at least initially—could be Southern Co.’s Kemper County, Miss., power plant, a facility designed to capture about 65% of its carbon-dioxide emissions and sell it to oil companies, which use it to help extract crude from wells.
Construction and technology snafus have doubled the cost of the Kemper project since it was approved in 2010, to nearly $7 billion. The power plant is scheduled to achieve full commercial operation early next year.
Congress weighs tax-credit incentives that could benefit Southern Co. project
By Rebecca Smith
rebecca.smith@wsj.com
Updated Dec. 21, 2016 10:47 a.m. ET
The most expensive fossil-fuel power plant ever built in the U.S. could soon get a financial lifeline thanks to President-elect Donald Trump, who has signaled interest in clean-coal initiatives as a way to preserve mining jobs.
Buoyed by Mr. Trump’s enthusiasm for the U.S. coal industry, several congressional proposals seek to boost tax breaks for facilities that can capture carbon dioxide, a dangerous greenhouse gas that is a byproduct of fossil-fuel combustion, and offer it to the oil industry for injection underground to stimulate production. The biggest winner—at least initially—could be Southern Co.’s Kemper County, Miss., power plant, a facility designed to capture about 65% of its carbon-dioxide emissions and sell it to oil companies, which use it to help extract crude from wells.
Construction and technology snafus have doubled the cost of the Kemper project since it was approved in 2010, to nearly $7 billion. The power plant is scheduled to achieve full commercial operation early next year.