Carbon dioxide emissions stemming from the U.S. Capitol’s coal-burning power plant must be reduced under an amendment to a broad global warming bill adopted this week by a House committee.
The amendment to the Transportation Energy Security and Climate Change Mitigation Act of 2007, introduced by D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, a Democrat, would require the Architect of the Capitol to “install technologies for the capture and storage or use of carbon dioxide emitted from the Capitol Power plant as a result of burning coal.” The full legislation won approval Wednesday from the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
“Starting in our own backyard is the way to begin cleaning the environment,” Norton said in a statement.
A Senate committee passed legislation earlier this month providing $3 million for a “Capitol Power Plant Carbon Dioxide Emissions Demonstration Program.” The nearly 100-year-old power plant provides steam, cooled water and electricity to the Capitol complex. Roughly half of the energy produced comes from coal.
The power plant meets all federal Clean Air Act standards and is continually monitored for emissions as required by its operating permit, AOC spokeswoman Eva Malecki said in an e-mail. Those monitoring systems are checked by a third party, and reports are provided regularly to D.C. and the Environmental Protection Agency.
“The AOC has spent, and will be spending, several millions of dollars to improve efficiencies and reduce emissions at the Capitol Power Plant,” Malecki said. “The Capitol Power Plant staff continues to identify and install modern environmental emissions control equipment whenever technically and economically feasible.”
Among its provisions, the House climate change mitigation measure would provide incentives for alternative-fuel research, make use of solar energy in government buildings and furnish funding for an E-85 ethanol-refueling station on the Capitol grounds.
