ProPublica and Drilled Investigation Questions Carbon Capture Feasibility
14 reported
An investigation by ProPublica and Drilled has found that supporters of carbon capture and storage (CCS) have ignored evidence of the technology’s limitations or overstated its potential, convincing the world it could be effective. The report states that for CCS to work at the scale now envisioned, the world would need to devote almost unimaginable resources, and it might still prove impossible to trap so much carbon dioxide inside the earth. The investigation notes that oil companies have funded research at universities for over 40 years into climate change solutions that would not require the public to stop using oil and gas. The article details that global leaders are betting on carbon capture working now more than ever, with models used in the latest United Nations assessment presuming the technology succeeds. However, the report points out that deployment has never come close to ambitions, with the world currently permanently burying less CO2 than a single large power plant can emit in a year. The investigation also notes that the same modelers who overestimated CCS potential repeatedly underestimated solar power, which has thrived while carbon capture remains elusive.
What’s reported
The investigation is by ProPublica and Drilled.
For more than 40 years, oil companies have funded research at universities into climate change solutions that would not require the public to stop using oil and gas.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) projected in 2008 that the world would need to bury around 1.6 billion tons of CO2 per year by 2025 to stave off dangerous warming.
Currently, the world is permanently burying less CO2 than a single large power plant can emit in a year.
The U.N. analysis suggests countries must inject 6 billion tons of CO2 underground each year by mid-century.
To achieve this, the world would need to devote about 768,000 square miles of land to growing carbon-absorbing plants, an area roughly the size of Mexico.
In the U.S. alone, this could require building more than 68,000 miles of new pipelines in a little more than two decades.
Globally, pipelines could tally in the hundreds of thousands of miles, and at least 85 specially built tankers would be needed to cross oceans; as of April, only three ships in the world were equipped to do that.
Today, just 12 large-scale geologic reservoirs have attempted to permanently store CO2, but more than 2,000 reservoirs of that size would be needed for CCS to work.
The report states that a new geological waste site would need to be opened every four days for the next 25 years.
At the current U.S. taxpayer rate of $85 per metric ton, by 2050 the world could be spending half a trillion dollars annually on CCS.
Since 1996, while 12 large-scale geological storage projects have opened, plans for another 12 have been scrapped.
Many CCS sites in Norway, Algeria, Australia, and the U.S. have been mired in problems, including rock layers holding less CO2 than estimated, clogged pipes, and CO2 leaks.
The same modelers who overestimated CCS potential repeatedly underestimated solar power, which has thrived.
Key figures
International Energy Agency (IEA) – cited for projections and a spokesperson response
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – cited for scenario database
Researchers Rory French and Lindsey Gulden – compiled data comparing projections and deployment
Sources: projects.propublica.org
