The return on investment of the clean coal technology program in the USA

We analyze the return on investment of the U.S. federal government’s clean coal technology (CCT) program for the period 2000–2020. We estimate total costs to government and industry and quantify benefits for: (1) Reduced capital costs of advanced technologies in new plants; (2) Reduced capital and operating costs at existing plants to remain compliant with environmental regulations; (3) Reduced fuel costs due to higher efficiencies; (4) Avoided environmental costs; (5) The value of clean coal technology export sales; (6) Jobs created. We find that benefits over the 20-year period total $111 billion (2008 dollars); the benefits in individual categories range from $15 billion in fuel cost savings to $39 billion for capital and technology cost savings in new and existing plants; and that total jobs created exceed 1.2 million, with an annual average of about 60,000 jobs created. We also find that the return on investment to DOE from the CCT program is favorable and is growing rapidly: By 2020, the cumulative DOE costs will likely total $8.5 billion, for an ROI of more than 13.