Moniz: ‘Technology is ready’ for carbon capture

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz on Thursday insisted the technology required for new power plants to meet the administration’s carbon emission regulations is ready.

{mosads}Moniz made the comment during a carbon capture sequestration meeting with other nations in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. For power plants to comply with the new regulations they must have carbon capture storage systems.

“The technology is ready,” Moniz said. “It is there. Certainly all parts of the technology have been deployed at scale.”

GOP members of Congress have continually drilled the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the issue, saying the regulations place too stringent requirements on power plants. The technological needs to enlist carbon capture storage at plants, Republicans say, are not ready.

House Energy Subcommittee Chairman Chris Stewart (R-Utah) prodded the EPA during a hearing last week, calling its technology claims “hypothetical.”

“After the agency is done looking into its crystal ball, analyzing an imaginary world, it tries to justify its claim with … vastly scaled down technology ‘components,’ and power plants ‘under construction,’ ” Stewart said.