Human activity spills about 25 billion tons of carbon dioxide (CO2)
into the atmosphere every year, building up the levels of greenhouse
gases that bring us ever closer to dangerous interference with Earth?s
climate system. The world?s forests take up about 2 or 3 billion tons
of that output annually, and the ocean absorbs 7 billion tons. Experts
estimate that another 5 to 10 billion tons of this greenhouse gas?as
much as 40% of human-made CO2?could be removed from the atmosphere and
tucked safely away.
Advancing the technologies needed to capture and store CO2 is a sensible
strategy. In addition to increasing renewable energy and promoting energy
efficiency and conservation, the strategy of advancing CO2 capture and
storage (CCS) can be easily understood by all Americans who acknowledge
that even though fossil fuels will be needed for a long time to come,
the U.S. government at some point must confront the climate change problem
by setting limits on CO2 emissions.
Capturing and storing CO2 is a cost-competitive and safe way to achieve
large-scale reductions in emissions. CCS technology offers a unique
opportunity to reconcile limits on CO2 emissions with society?s fossil
fuel?dominated energy infrastructure. In order to continue using the
United States? vast domestic coal resources in a world where CO2 must
be constrained, the country will need to rely on technology that can
seize CO2 generated from coal-fired power plants and store it in geologic
formations underground. However, the integration and scaling up of existing
technologies to capture, transport, and store CO2 emitted from a full-scale
power plant have not yet been demonstrated. The technical feasibility
of integrating a complete CCS system with a commercial-scale power plant
is not in doubt, but it is necessary to build up experience by advancing
early deployment.
In addition to the environmental benefits, more aggressive support of
CCS technology is critical to maintaining U.S. leadership and competitiveness
in both CCS and global energy-technology markets. The United States
has played a leading role in nearly all R&D related to the use of
fossil fuels and has always had particular expertise in coal-based power-production
technologies. Yet despite the great potential of CCS, the U.S. government
is not investing in it aggressively. The current administration emphasizes
the importance of advanced technologies, including CCS, in addressing
climate change, but is not effectively promoting its demonstration and
deployment. U.S. industry is already beginning to lose ground, because
the handful of existing large-scale CCS projects are not in the United
States.
The private sector has shown substantial interest in CCS and has begun
investing in development and demonstration projects. But progress will
be slow without government-created incentives. The challenge for the
government is to harness the private sector?s interest by developing
policies that reward investment in and early deployment of CCS systems.