DOE Official: Initial CCS Technologies Estimated to Increase Wholesale Electricity Costs Up to “70 to 80 Percent”

WASHINGTON, DC - At today’s House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing on the Department of Energy’s clean coal programs, DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Clean Coal Dr. S. Julio Friedmann testified that carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies could drastically increase energy costs. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) questioned how much CCS technologies could add to the cost of electricity, and Friedmann expressed that for first generation technologies, there would be “something like a 70 to 80 percent increase on the wholesale price of electricity." He added, “It is in fact a substantial percentage increase in the cost of electricity, but in part, that’s because the current price of coal is so low.