See a photo gallery of the Secretary’s visit to Kemper.

Liberty, Mississippi, a small town in the eastern county of Kemper, is quietly making energy history.

Liberty is the home of the largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant in the country. The plant, commonly called the Kemper County Project, will use state-of-the-art emission controls to produce electricity from coal in an efficient and environmentally friendly way.

Secretary Moniz toured the site today, along with Norway’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Tord Lien, and Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant.

The tour included stops at the carbon dioxide capture and synthetic gas cleanup and processing sites; and the part of the plant where gasification — conversion of coal to gas using a controlled amount of oxygen or steam — takes place.

Nearly 70 percent of America’s electricity is generated from fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. And fossil fuels also account for almost three-fourths of human-caused emissions in the past two decades. The Department is committed to advancing technologies that make coal more efficient, economical and environmentally sustainable — securing its place in America’s clean energy future while fighting the effects of climate change.

The Kemper County Energy Facility is part of the Energy Department’s Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI), which is aimed at securing low-cost energy production and protecting the environment through public and private investment. In a series of projects across the country, this program demonstrates a new generation of innovative coal-utilization technologies.

To learn more about other CCPI projects across the country, visit the National Energy Technology Laboratory’s website.