Nine Clean Coal Projects Get $1 Billion In Tax Credits

Nine Clean Coal Projects Get $1 Billion In Tax Credits

By Lisa Lambert


WASHINGTON, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Nine clean coal and advanced gasification projects in the United States will share $1 billion in tax credits in 2007, U.S. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said Thursday.

The bulk of those tax credits, $800 million, will go to supporting Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle projects, which convert coal to a synthetic gas that can be burned for generating electricity.

During the conversion process pollutants sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and mercury are stripped out, preventing them from being released into the atmosphere when the gas is burned.

While coal companies have been developing technologies that eliminate emissions, the U.S. Department of Energy said it needed financial help to make those technologies widely used.

Duke Energy (DUK.N: Quote, Profile , Research) will receive tax breaks equaling $258.5 for its Edwardsport, Indiana, projects and its Cleveland, North Carolina, projects, Bodman said.

Tampa Electric (TE.N: Quote, Profile , Research) will be given credits equaling $133.5 million, while Mississippi Power Company will receive $133 million.

E.ON U.S. (EONG.DE: Quote, Profile , Research) and its partners on a Kentucky clean coal project, Kentucky Utilities Company and Louisville Gas and Electric, will receive $125 million.

Carson Hydrogen Power LLC, and TX Energy LLC will also receive credits, although the Energy Department did not disclose the amounts.

As the U.S. seeks out alternatives to oil for energy, it is turning repeatedly to its coal fields, which account for more than 27 percent of the world's coal reserves, according to the statistical arm of the department, the Energy Information Administration.


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