Carbon capture technology may seem like capturing the escaping horse at the door. However, it’s an undeniable fact we have to start sequestrating the carbon we create before it reaches the atmosphere. U.S. carbon capture is a thorny issue with the administration seeking to stop investment but Congress is not playing ball.
Limited Progress with U.S. Carbon Capture by DOE
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has been investigating carbon sequestration since 1997. For its trouble the Petra Nova project in Texas is the only facility contributing to U.S. carbon capture from power generation in a meaningful way.
Petra Nova receives carbon emissions from a single unit of a coal burning power plant. It processes these emissions from a modified boiler and compresses them. Then it pipes the gas to an oil field 80 miles distant. Forcing the pressurized carbon dioxide into the field increases oil production by a factor of 50. The engineers plan for the CO2 to remain 5,000 feet underground forever.
Inevitably This Carbon Perpetuating Project Remains Controversial
Carbon capture technology receives increasing attention worldwide. However the Petra Nova ‘solution’ is rare outside the similar Boulder Dam coal station project at Estevan, Saskatchewan in Canada.
Some environmentalists are up in arms over the idea according to Reuters.Com. They complain carbon capture “perpetuates the fossil-fuel status quo … and this is at the expense of the rapid, deep cuts in dirty energy use needed to curb global warming”. U.S. carbon capture has certainly attracted a curious coalition of interests. We have heard of conservative factions actively wanting to promote the idea.
However If We Don’t Capture Carbon, What’s Next?
While elsewhere we have green politicians pushing hard for more carbon capture, there are still doubts. When the dust has settled, and we can think calmly we need to ask ourselves one simple question. If we don’t capture carbon and find a use for it, what else are we to do in the immediate future?
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Preview Image: Coal Generation Source of CO2
