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EPA and Texas Railroad Commission Sign Memorandum of Agreement for Permitting Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide

LCG, April 29, 2025--Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) today outlining the state’s plans to administer programs related to carbon storage wells, known as Class VI wells. The MOA signing is a required step in the RRC’s application to be granted authority to permit Class VI wells in the state of Texas. EPA is currently preparing a proposed approval of RRC’s primacy application.

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Calpine and ExxonMobil Sign CO2 Transportation and Storage Agreement for CCS Project in Texas

LCG, April 24, 2025--Exxon Mobil Corporation (ExxonMobil) announced yesterday an agreement with Calpine Corporation (Calpine) to transport and permanently store up to 2 million metric tons per annum (MTA) of CO2 from Calpine’s Baytown Energy Center, a natural gas-fired facility located near Houston, Texas. This is part of Calpine’s Baytown Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project that is designed to add CCS for the facility’s CO2 emissions. The Calpine facility could then provide a 24/7 supply of low-carbon electricity to the Texas grid plus steam to nearby industrial facilities.

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Industry News

NRG Plans Fuel Switching from Coal to Gas to Avoid Plant Closures

LCG, June 26, 2013--NRG Energy (NRG) announced plans Monday to retrofit the 330-MW, New Castle power plant to switch from burning coal to natural gas. The 60-year old plant, located in Pennsylvania, had been scheduled to close by April 2015 due to environmental regulations associated with burning coal. With the fuel switching, the plant will be reactivated, and the anticipated commercial operating date (COD) for gas-fired operations is the summer of 2016.

NRG merged with GenOn Energy Inc. in December 2012, and GenOn had previously announced the April 2015 closing date last year.

NRG's East Region spokesperson stated, "The New Castle plant shutdown was announced because it would have required a substantial investment in environmental controls to continue to operate as a coal-burning facility. But we looked at it and decided it could be operated economically on natural gas. We won't have to install the extremely expensive controls that would have been required to continue operating on coal."

Following the reactivation, the New Castle plant is anticipated to change from a serving a base-load role to a peaking role, when electric demand peaks.

Other plants targeted by NRG to convert from coal to gas and reactivate are the 732-MW Avon Lake power plant in Ohio by the summer of 2016, as well as the 75-MW Dunkirk Unit 2 in New York.
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