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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowDuke Energy, which asked state regulators permission to have customers pay $121 million for a geological study related
to a controversial generating plant under construction, now seeks one-third the amount.
Duke now seeks $42 million
to cover only study costs through 2010 after learning it would not receive a federal grant to further study the suitability
of deep underground rock formations for storing carbon dioxide generated by its Edwardsport power station.
Injecting
deep underground the carbon dioxide produced by an electric generating plant has not been conducted on a mass scale in the
United States.
In early 2009, Duke asked the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission for permission to charge customers
up to $121 million to study additional locations to inject carbon after the rock beneath Edwardsport was found not as promising
as first thought.
Though carbon sequestration was never factored into the coal gasification electric plant’s
$2.4 billion price tag, sequestration was from the start hailed by Duke as a logical future complement to the 630-megawatt
plant.
Duke’s 2009 filing with the commission anticipated asking for $42 million in the event the North
Carolina-based utility failed to obtain federal funding, said Duke spokeswoman Angeline Protogere.
“While
disappointed, we continue to pursue the [sequestration study] project,” she said.
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