U.S. Dept. of Energy intends loan up to $1.5B to CO2 storage project in Vigo, Vermillion counties
Summary
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced its intent to loan Wabash Valley Resources up to about $1.5 billion.The state pilot program to build an anhydrous ammonia fertilizer plant and then store its CO2 emissions underground was approved by the Indiana legislature about five years ago.But now the companys vice president of external affairs, Greg Zoeller, said WVR has most of the private investment it needs to move the project forward and the announcement will help secure the rest.This is really the last big step that we needed in the process. So this essentially announces that the project will be built out and itll be operational at least by [20]27 or [20]28," he said.DOE hopes the plant will reduce the amount of fertilizer the U.S. imports from other countries, bringing down the cost for farmers. It also said the project would revitalize a community that lost jobs with the decline of the coal industry.Still, the Wabash Valley Resources will have to meet certain requirements to get the loan like an environmental review. And so to me, when were talking to unions in this, its just a ploy to push the job issue that nobody wants to talk about the safety," Strole-Kos said.READ MORE: Company hoping to store carbon emissions wants to ease residents concerns it hasnt worked yetA few weeks ago, ADM in Illinois the only other company with a large CO2 storage project in the U.S. notified the federal government of a leak earlier this year.When asked if such a leak could happen at the WVR carbon storage site, Zoeller said its design will have more safety measures in place.Our technology is going to be 10 years more robust. Zoeller said much of whats in those plans will be in the one presented to DOE only it wont include the donor advised funds that he said the company now aims to funnel to community foundations.Rebecca is our energy and environment reporter.