EnviroEconomics.ca

Quietly, the ecoENERGY Carbon Capture and Storage Task Force released its report on the viability and prospects for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) (see coverage here download report here: EcoEneregy CCS Report ). But, there is a continued notion out there that CCS should not be supported,

The Sierra Club of Canada has also criticized the technology as an excuse for industry to increase production rather than efficiency….”It’s in Canada’s best interest to be more efficient,”

This kind of thinking is not helpful. As part of a comprehensive strategy to tackle GHG emissions, CCS has a place along with conservation, efficiency, renewables, and lots more (see my previous post here). CCS therefore needs to be viewed as such, and supported as one way to work ourselves out of the carbon mess we now face. The CCS report released yesterday pegs public cost of CCS at $2 billion, with that much or more coming from industry:

The cash is needed to close “a financial gap” between Tory good intentions and energy firms’ ability to build a carbon capture and storage network….Industry would respond by kicking in $2 billion to $4 billion towards waste-gas cleanup equipment, pipelines and disposal sites if the taxpayers’ money is made available for an array of potential projects,

A 50% subsidy may on face value seem like a lot, but in the grand scheme of things it is not so bad, especially if it reduces carbon and other nasty emissions. With CCS, we see local and immediate air quality benefits, which are important. And it is not just the oil industry that benefits. CCS in Alberta will benefit a whack of emitters including refiners that make our gas and heating oil. And the price, at about $100/tonne (4 billion annualized at 12% capital recovery factor and 5 MT annually) seems to be about where we need to go if large national reductions are to be achieved.

Lets face it, oil sands emissions are large, the industry is growing and international demand has strong long-term prospects. CCS is a viable solution, along with efficiency, but even if we tap all the efficiency in the oil and gas sector emissions will continue to climb and international demand will remain unchecked. Is then nuclear the answer? Do we ban production and lose all those public royalties and jobs? Good luck with movement in either of those directions. So, like it or not we are stuck with CCS.

And yes it is a nascent technology, with uncertain cost and benefits (permanence being one and intergenerational transfers of risk being another), but it is at the top of the mitigation opportunity ladder. And so, it needs pubic support to get it going, to set the rules of the game and to ensure it proceeds with the public interest in mind.

And importantly the sector is willing to make investments, which is more than can be said for the majority of emissions in Canada (that is, you, me and our cars).