Federal Loan Guarantees for Clean Coal Technologies

Title XVII of the Environmental Policy Act of 2005 provides broad authority for the Department of Energy to guarantee loans for innovative projects, including clean coal projects. DOE made $8.5 billion in loan guarantee authority available under the Solicitation for Advanced Fossil Energy Projects. DOE’s authority to issue this amount of loan guarantees was provided by the (a) Revised Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2007, P.L. 110-5, and (b) Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009, P.L. No. 111-8, as amended by Section 408 of the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2009, P.L. No. 111-32. Historically, these loan guarantees have not been utilized. In 2016, however, DOE provided a conditional loan guarantee in the amount of $2 billion for a CCS project to the Lake Charles methanol production facility in Louisiana, which will capture carbon and use it for enhanced oil recovery.