UPDATE 1-EU vote backs tough carbon caps for power plants

BRUSSELS, Oct 7 (Reuters) - EU lawmakers voted on Tuesday for such strict carbon curbs on power plants that, if enacted, they would rule out coal power from 2015, unless fitted with untested carbon-trapping technologies.

The vote was part of a series on Tuesday which laid the EU Parliament's position in climate and energy negotiations with EU leaders, for final agreement later this year or early in 2009.

In a carrot and stick approach, the European Parliament's environment committee also voted on Tuesday to supply billions of euros to help test carbon capture and storage technology (CCS), which many scientists view as the nearest thing to a climate change silver bullet.

The money would come from selling on the EU carbon market emissions permits originally intended for newly built factories and power plants.

The surprise CCS measures will face stiff opposition from across the lobby community, including greens who reject the idea of funding a technology which aids high-carbon coal, and industry depending on cheap energy during a downturn.

CCS involves trapping the heat-trapping greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from coal and gas-fired power plants and then piping and burying it underground, for example in depleted oil and gas fields.

The lawmakers supported carbon caps on power plants so ambitious that it would prevent new-build coal-fired power without CCS fitted -- at 500 grammes CO2 per kilowatt hour.

"This effectively prevents the building of new coal-fired power plants from 2015 unless equipped with CCS," said Chris Davies, the MEP responsible for guiding CCS legislation through the European Parliament.

Average CO2 emissions from coal plants are nearly 1,000 g/kWh, analysts say, and no coal plants can beat about 700g.

The proposed 2015 timetable is tight, both to pilot and then roll it out as standard an untested technology which analysts do not expect to be demonstrated on a commercial scale before 2012 or 2013 at the earliest.

It could face stiff opposition from member states heavily dependent on coal, including much of eastern Europe.

The vote backing up to 10 billion euros for CCS tests will almost certainly face opposition from greens who would prefer the money was spent on renewables like wind and solar power.

"We won't put the coal age behind us if we give carbon capture and storage a blank cheque," said Joris den Blanken, Greenpeace EU climate and energy director.

"This technology has a part to play, but so do many other new and exciting renewable technologies," said Green MEP Caroline Lucas.

"We should not be articificially boosting CCS and prioritising coal at the expense of these - especially bearing in mind that CCS will not reach commercial stage until at least 2020, yet the science tells us that emissions must peak and begin to decline by 2015," she added. -- Additional reporting by Dan Fineren in London (Reporting by Pete Harrison; Writing by Gerard Wynn; Editing by James Jukwey)