Carbon Capture & Sequestration (CCS) is central to a vision of a future tied, perhaps even more inextricably, into fossil fuel exploitation with at least some (constrained?) hope of turning the tide on Global Warming’s rising seas.
Whenever considering CCS, I have a basic problem. No, it is not the utter uncertainty as to whether it will work at large enough scale. Nor is it questioning when (or if) it can become a substantive reality nor even the question of the risks of potential carbon burps from stored carbon. No, not those. Nor is it the continuation of mountain top removal, nore even the 100,000+ new wells required (in the US alone) to inject carbon into the ground (and the near doubling of the current natural gas & petroleum extraction infrastructure including pipelines, etc …). Whenever considering CCS, I find it hard to get past a simple conumdrum: there will be quite real motivation for cheating at multiple levels.
(Note: This is a brief thought post, thus the two links above are the extent of sourcing / referencing …)
As a very simple description, CCS is sold as a path for Clean Coal by capturing emissions coming out of the smoke stack and (in liquid or otherwise form) taking the CO2 and injecting into the earth rather than dumping it into the atmosphere. If it works, on large scale, it will add additional cost to the costs of generating electricity from coal. A simple estimate is that it will add at least 40% to the costs of burning coal.
A 40% cost (likely more) increase?
For what?
A 40% increase in costs to provide for a common good … and a common good that is of quite delayed impact and essentially invisible in a person’s daily life.
How many of your neighbors (acquaintainces, friends, local citizens, otherwise …) throw their cigarettes on the ground rather than find a trash can? How many dump oil from changing oil into the storm drains rather than proper disposal? How much trash do you see when taking a walk in the nearby woods or on the beach? How much recycling ends up in the regular trash? How many factories dump chemicals into streams? How …
The answers to these questions terrify when put in the context of CCS.
That 40% additional cost for a long-deferred ‘common good’ seems to shout ‘rampant cheating ahead’.
Whether plant operator, larger utility, a region or a country, that 40% (or greater) additional cost creates a tremendous incentive for cheating. If able to avoid those costs, this would mean more power delivered to consumers per ton of coal — which just might mean far greater profits for that plant operator or utility (and, quite likely, some nice Bakshish into the pockets of those responsible for moderating the system). For a country, a “lower cost” (putting aside acification of oceans, mercury pollution, and that pesky little thing, Global Warming) electricity system.
There will be monitoring systems and enforcement mechanisms. And, they will have to be strong due to these motivations for cheating.
CCS could well create a massive cat-and-mouse carbon game. Is that the best path forward to protect the future?