Little lab on the prairie is a gold mine for U.S. 'clean coal' investors
Source: Reuters
Little lab on the prairie is a gold mine for U.S. ‘clean coal’ investors
A North Dakota laboratory is one of a handful that test refined coal to ensure it reduces pollution enough to quality for lucrative U.S. environmental subsidies – but those results often don’t translate into real-world improvements at power plants.
By TIM MCLAUGHLIN Filed Dec. 4, 2018, 2 p.m. GMT
“Clean” coal is a rich vein for American investors to mine, thanks to a lucrative subsidy offered by the U.S. government. For many producers of the fuel, the path to profit leads through a laboratory at the University of North Dakota.
The school’s Energy and Environmental Research Center reported earning about $5 million in fiscal 2015-16 performing laboratory tests that qualify clean-coal producers for the subsidy. On any given day, EERC technicians take a sample of up to one ton of the coal from a producer and burn it in a miniature boiler to determine whether it reduces a specific pollutant enough to make the grade.
A stamp of approval from EERC, or a handful of other labs serving the industry, unlocks a tax credit worth more than $7 a ton to producers and their investors. The subsidy, enjoyed by more than 50 clean-coal operations stretching from West Virginia to Wyoming, costs U.S. taxpayers about $1 billion annually.
Technically speaking, EERC’s services aren’t necessary to win the credit. Producers simply need to prove that their product, also known as refined coal, is cutting their emissions of targeted pollutants – a 20 percent cut in nitrogen oxide output plus a 40 percent reduction in mercury. To do that, they can submit the comprehensive data that’s measured around-the-clock at America’s smokestacks – in real-world conditions, instead of a lab – and reported regularly to the Environmental Protection Agency.
But almost all investors choose instead to pay laboratories like EERC for testing that lasts one day, according to industry executives and disclosures by refined coal producers to environmental regulators.
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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-coal-labs/
