Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 24 / Friday, February 5, 2010 / Presidential Documents 6087 

Memorandum of February 3, 2010 

A Comprehensive Federal Strategy on Carbon Capture and 

Storage 

Memorandum for the Secretary of State[,] the Secretary of the Treasury[,] 

the Attorney General[,] the Secretary of the Interior[,] the Secretary of 

Agriculture[,] the Secretary of Commerce[,] the Secretary of Labor[,] the 

Secretary of Transportation[,] the Secretary of Energy[,] the Director of 

the Office of Management and Budget[,] the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency[,] the Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission[,] the Director of the Office of Science and Technology 

Policy[, and] the Chair of the Council on Environmental Quality 

For decades, the coal industry has supported quality high-paying jobs for 

American workers, and coal has provided an important domestic source 

of reliable, affordable energy. At the same time, coal-fired power plants 

are the largest contributor to U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and coal accounts 

for 40 percent of global emissions. Charting a path toward clean coal is 

essential to achieving my Administration’s goals of providing clean energy, 

supporting American jobs, and reducing emissions of carbon pollution. Rapid 

commercial development and deployment of clean coal technologies, particularly carbon capture and storage (CCS), will help position the United States 

as a leader in the global clean energy race. 

My Administration is already pursuing a set of concrete initiatives to speed 

the commercial development of safe, affordable, and broadly deployable 

CCS technologies. We have made the largest Government investment in 

carbon capture and storage of any nation in history, and these investments 

are being matched by private capital. The Department of Energy is conducting 

a comprehensive clean coal technology program including research, development, and demonstration of CCS technologies and is pursuing important 

international cooperative initiatives to spur demonstration and deployment 

of CCS. The Environmental Protection Agency is developing regulations 

that address the safety, efficacy, and environmental soundness of injecting 

and storing carbon dioxide underground. The Department of the Interior 

is assessing, in coordination with the Department of Energy, the country’s 

geologic capacity to store carbon dioxide and promoting geological storage 

demonstration projects on public lands. All of this work builds on the 

firm scientific basis that now exists for the viability of CCS technology. 

To further this work and develop a comprehensive and coordinated Federal 

strategy to speed the commercial development and deployment of clean 

coal technologies, I hereby establish an Interagency Task Force on Carbon 

Capture and Storage (Task Force). You shall each designate a senior official 

from your respective agency to serve on the Task Force, which shall be 

Co-Chaired by the designees from the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. 

The Task Force shall develop within 180 days of the date of this memorandum a proposed plan to overcome the barriers to the widespread, costeffective deployment of CCS within 10 years, with a goal of bringing 5 

to 10 commercial demonstration projects online by 2016. The plan should 

explore incentives for commercial CCS adoption and address any financial, 

economic, technological, legal, institutional, social, or other barriers to deployment. The Task Force should consider how best to coordinate existing 

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6088 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 24 / Friday, February 5, 2010 / Presidential Documents 

administrative authorities and programs, including those that build international collaboration on CCS, as well as identify areas where additional 

administrative authority may be necessary. The Co-Chairs shall report 

progress periodically to the President through the Chair of the Council 

on Environmental Quality. 

Ultimately, comprehensive energy and climate legislation that puts a cap 

on carbon pollution will provide the largest incentive for CCS because 

it will create stable, long-term, market-based incentives to channel private 

investment in low-carbon technologies. My Administration’s new CCS strategy will pave the way for this energy transition by identifying and removing 

barriers to rapid commercial deployment and by providing greater legal 

and regulatory clarity. This will help to spur private investment in CCS 

in the near term—investment that will create good jobs and benefit communities. 

This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law 

and subject to the availability of appropriations. This memorandum is not 

intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United 

States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, 

or any other person. 

The Secretary of Energy is hereby authorized and directed to publish this 

memorandum in the Federal Register. 

THE WHITE HOUSE, 

WASHINGTON, February 3, 2010 

[FR Doc. 2010–2744 

Filed 2–4–10; 11:15 am] 

Billing code 6450–01–P 


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