Carbon Capture and Storage and the Need for Zero Carbon Fossil Fuels

 

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is one of the most important technologies for averting the worst aspects of climate change. That’s because fossil fuel use is growing worldwide, not declining:

 

  • In the last few years alone, China has built more new coal plants than exist across the United States.  By 2015, China will have more than three times more coal plants than the United States.

 

  • The Energy Information Agency predicts that world fossil use will increase 50% by 2035.

 

  • Natural gas use in the United States will increase as a result of recent development of “unconventional gas” deposits.

 

At the same time, the urgency of addressing climate change is growing.  Surface temperatures in 2010 tied 2005 as the highest on record.  The past decade from 2001 to 2010 was the warmest recorded. As a consequence of warming, the Earth’s climate is changing. Arctic sea ice is retreating, ice sheets and glaciers are melting, and the global sea level has risen.

 

These facts underscore the need for CCS.  It’s effective because it can capture up to 90% of the CO2 from these major sources.  The technology is scalable, and its individual components have been available for decades.

 

But for CCS technology to become widely used, regulations that limit carbon dioxide must be adopted.  And for all its benefits, CCS and other low-carbon technologies like nuclear and wind, cost more than near term electricity production prices.  This web site describes technological status and costs of each of its components, the policies needed to advance CCS, and the global strategy needed to lower costs.

 

The Clean Air Task Force is an independent environmental organization not funded by industry or government. Our Coal Transition Project provides objective analysis of coal policy and technology, and advances environmentally responsible coal policy.                              




Clean Air Task Force's Schnieder Discusses Latest Delay on NSPS Ruling 

With the release of U.S. EPA's New Source Performance Standards delayed once again, what are the political impacts for the Obama administration in proposing this rule during an election year?  E&E News interviews Conrad Schneider, advocacy director at the Clean Air Task Force, on the latest delay and possible details of the NSPS.