Kentucky is stepping up research on storing harmful carbon dioxide emissions underground. Three private energy companies will put up additional funding and expertise to help carry out the carbon storage test. Included are Peabody and ConocoPhillips, which are in the preliminary stages of designing a plant that would convert coal into gas for electricity. That plant will be outfitted to capture carbon dioxide before it escapes into the atmosphere. But geologists must prove it can be stored efficiently, and near the plant. Survey head Dave Harris says the challenge will be the amount of CO2 underground chambers might need to handle.
“Five million tons of CO2 per year is a good ballpark number for the amount of CO2 that a plant like that would produce. I mean that’s a lot of CO2 you’ve got to get rid of. Until we get this well drilled we really don’t know how many wells you’re going to have to drill, and how much each well can actually handle per year,” Harris said.
To find out, geologists will drill a mile-and-a-half deep well in western Kentucky and then inject it with a small volume of carbon dioxide. Even if the well can hold a substantial volume and no leaks develop, Harris says commercial-scale carbon storage is still 5 to 10 years away.
From Kentucky Public Radio’s Tony McVeigh
The search for a new president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education is moving forward. Earlier this year, former CPE president Brad Cowgill resigned under pressure at the urging of Governor Beshear. Beshear said Cowgill’s hiring was illegal because a national search was not conducted.
Now, a Florida firm has been hired to help find a new president. Search committee chair John Hall says Dr. Jan Greenwood of Greenwood, Asher and Associates will help locate qualified candidates.
“She’ll be talking to various members of state government and members of the CPE and then she’ll be trying to identify candidates,” he said.
Hall says the committee would like to start interviewing candidates this fall and have a new president onboard by December. In the meantime, Dr. Richard Crofts is serving as interim president. Crofts is not a candidate for the permanent post.
Recent flooding in southern and central Indiana will likely mean hundreds of millions of dollars in crop losses for Hoosier farmers. A new report released today by the US Department of Agriculture predicts the Hoosier State’s corn harvest will be down four percent from a pre-flood estimate in March, and ten percent from last year.
But Ken Klemme with the Indiana Department of Agriculture says it will take some time to get a clear picture of the flood’s impact.
“Farmers are still continuing to do some replanting, its too early to know how the acres that farmers chose to leave how those fields will yield, how the replanted fields will yield, so there’s just so much unknown right now, it’s really hard day to day to know whether to feel better or worse than you did the day before,” he said.
The Indiana Department of Agriculture estimates total crop losses could go as high as 800-million dollars.
The Ryder Cup won’t be the only international golf competition played in the Louisville area this September.The first-ever Humana Fightmaster Cup, featuring the best one-armed golfers from North America and Europe, will be played in Shelby County. It’s named for Louisvillian Don Fightmaster, who taught himself to play golf after losing an arm in 1954 automobile accident.
Fightmaster, who will captain the North America
n team, says the competition will follow the Ryder Cup format.
“We’re going to have the same amount of members, we’ll have twelve from the North American team and the European team, and we’ll have the same matches as the Ryder Cup,” he said.
The Humana Fightmaster Cup matches will be played September 12-14 at the Cardinal Club in Simpsonville.
The Ryder Cup begins September 16 at Valhalla Golf Club in Eastern Jefferson County.
Kentucky’s gas tax is set to increase tomorrow.
The gas tax can be adjusted quarterly, and goes up and down with the wholesale price of gasoline. Starting Tuesday, Kentucky’s gas tax goes up another penny-and-a-half per gallon – to 21-point-1 cents. Jill Midkiff with the Kentucky Finance Cabinet says the tax goes straight to motorists.
“It’s remitted at the wholesale level, by licensed dealers, and then the tax is passed through to the retailer and then passed on to the consumer,” she said.
Last year at this time, the excise tax went up one-point-three cents. The money from the gas tax goes into the state road fund. The formula that calculates the state’s gas tax hasn’t been changed since 1988.
