美国政府问责局在Dec. 20 report。That assessment comes a几次失败的尝试证明了资助的碳捕获和存储技术，并有可能减轻全球气候变化。

DOE spent about $1.1 billion since 2009 to demonstrate 11 large-scale projects at coal-fired power plants and industrial facilities meant to accelerate the commercial deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS). The demonstrations ended with just three of 11 projects being built, GAO said.

Of eight projects at the power plant sites, one was completed and began operating, but it was shut down in 2020. “Implementing them has proven to be a challenge,” GAO said in its analysis for the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

Two of the three industrial demonstration projects were completed and continue to operate.

Three coal projects withdrew from participating in DOE’s Clean Coal Power Initiative, and the agency terminated its cooperative agreements with four others. “In total, DOE invested nearly $684 million in six of the eight coal projects the agency initially selected for funding,” GAO said.

Gao在审查文件和进行访谈时发现，尽管有些人已经完成了工程和设计研究，但经济学对于许多煤炭CCS项目来说都是一个问题。新利18备用网址它们受到与天然气的竞争，围绕碳市场和税收优惠的不确定性以及高昂的开发成本的影响。新利18备用官网登录

DOE’s decision to fully commit to coal projects at their initial selection rather than subjecting them to further review increased the risk of failure, GAO said. Department officials also negotiated funding agreements on an accelerated schedule, which increased the risk of underwriting projects that were unlikely to succeed, according to the oversight agency.

“DOE bypassed cost controls at the direction of its senior leadership on four struggling coal projects in order to provide additional time to meet key milestones, ultimately spending nearly $472 million before terminating those cooperative agreements prior to the construction of any facilities,” GAO said.

Department officials told GAO that under normal circumstances, it can take up to a year to conduct due diligence and negotiate terms in a cooperative agreement, but the agency accelerated Clean Coal Power projects in less than three months.

DOE还绕过了旨在限制其合作协议最终终止的四个煤炭示范的财务敞口的成本控制。Gao说：“因此，DOE超过了其计划的早期资金目标，这些目标是没有建造设施的项目。”新利18备用网址

When selecting industrial CCS projects, DOE used a more traditional “down-selection” process to allocate to 13 projects the initial funding for additional design research before narrowing its selection to three projects for full funding.

The extra time for projects to refine designs, scopes and plans allowed DOE to select projects that were in the best position to succeed, department officials told GAO. “Specifically, they noted that at the time of initial application, most coal demonstration projects had not conducted in-depth design and engineering work, meaning that DOE assumed a great deal of risk in selecting them for full funding,” the GAO report said.

成功的可能性很小

最终GAO发现，仅改进计划级别的实践可能无法完全解决“如果未来的CCS示范项目努力实现关键绩效里程碑，那么将纳税人资金置于风险的风险中。新利18备用网址监督机构表示，需要一种国会机制来提供对CCS示威活动的DOE项目支出的更大监督和问责制。

“Absent such a mechanism, DOE is at risk of expending significant funds on CCS demonstration projects that have little likelihood of success,” GAO said.

DOE said in response that its new Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations will evaluate GAO’s recommendations and develop corrective actions needed to address GAO’s concerns.

The new office, announced Dec. 21, is funded with $21 billion from the newly enacted federal infrastructure law to manage CCS and other clean energy technology demonstration projects, including green hydrogen, grid-scale energy storage, small modular nuclear reactors and others. The funding is part of $62 billion DOE will gain from the law for the clean energy demonstration projects, it said.

Nearly $9.5 billion of that program will fund four regional green hydrogen hubs, a manufacturing and recycling program, and technology demonstration and commercialization. About $3.5 billion is earmarked for CCS pilot and demonstration projects, with $2.5 billion for advanced nuclear reactor projects.

DOE表示，它计划在经济上受到严重打击并面临污染和气候变化影响最高风险的领域中找到示新利18备用网址范项目，这是Biden Administry Justice 40倡议的一部分，目的是向这些社区提供40％的清洁能源投资福利。

美国物理研究所说：“现在，美国能源部将不得不扩大其当前选择和管理此类项目的能力。”新利18备用网址

进行调查的GAO自然资源和环境集团主管弗兰克·鲁斯科（Frank Rusco）表示，高恩（Gao）尚未评估新办公室。

“As usual, DOE is considering our recommendations and if they implement them it should help avoid future problems,” he told ENR.