MORE THAN 700 EXPERTS GATHER TO EXPLORE WAYS TO EXPEDITE DEPLOYMENT OF CARBON CAPTURE & SEQUESTRATION
DOE Assistant Secretary Shope, Pitt Mayor, County Exec Address
Experts from 23 Countries
PITTSBURGH, Pa.—As more than 725 key decisionmakers from the business, government and academic communities gathered here for the Sixth Annual Conference on Carbon Capture and Sequestration from May 7-10, the overwhelming message was clear: industrial-scale storage can begin immediately with existing technology despite some of the regulatory and liability uncertainties associated with the technology. “Carbon capture and storage seems to be close to the takeoff stage and make no mistake now is the time to act—the time to act carefully and methodically to avoid unintended consequences,” acting Assistant Secretary of Energy for Fossil Energy 
Thomas Shope said in remarks May 8. “We need to begin creating a statutory and regulatory system that is capable of dealing with the big financial, social, and legal questions such as licensing and permitting, recognize the accepted best practices, land owner royalties, citizens rights, long term liability and of course the possibility of leakage no matter how remote it is,” he said, adding that “without the facts and the evidence it is difficult to advance or oppose a rule on capture and storage itself.”
Pitt Mayor, County Exec Open Conference
Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato (D) and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (D) opened the conference May 8. “Welcome to coal country,” Onorato said, going on to
the highlight the work of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, which is in Allegheny County. “I took a tour of [the lab] a few months ago,” he said. “It’s right there with the technology that’s being tested. It’s carbon capture. If we could ever perfect that, we’d take away the biggest problem of burning coal and it will be the most reliable source of energy we would have here.” Ravenstahl pointed out that the tremendous gains in air and water quality in the city over the last several decades gives a precedent for environmental health alongside growth, a key concern when implementing carbon capture and sequestration. “We are transforming … from a smoky city, from an old city, to a new hip and energetic city,” Ravenstahl said. 
“There’s no reason certainly that we can’t be the leader when we talk about coal and energy as well. I want to thank you all for the work that you do. I want you to know we are as committed as you are in the city of Pittsburgh to making this conference a success.”
(Click here additional stories and highlights from the conference in GHG Transactions & Technologies)
