An effort to develop Wyoming’s Powder River Basin aims to evolve the region into the Carbon Valley to advance new carbon industries that go well beyond burning coal
Northeast Wyoming and its 25 billion tons of available coal is positioning itself as the nation’s Carbon Valley by embracing many types of carbon research and usage to spark a new carbon economy. This includes efforts to capture, sequester and reuse CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants. Private industry is targeting the Carbon Valley for research to make carbon-based products such as carbon nanofiber, graphene and air filter systems.
“The whole concept of the Carbon Valley is we’re going to continue to ship our coal, but we’re also going to find ways to make it carbon neutral, or even carbon negative,” said Campbell County Commissioner Rusty Bell.
Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney stated “Carbon Valley is more than a vision or hope at this point. It’s definitely an area where we’ve already begun to lead the way.” Representative Cheney goes on to say “The money and the resources are going into what can really become a model for the rest of the country. ... I’m excited about what’s going on and I think there’s a lot of interest in what we’re doing.”
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