Alberta is putting taxpayer dollars down on the shiny bauble that is carbon capture and sequestration.
Meghan Potkins has the just barely above press release stenography story in the Financial Post/Postmedia:
Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA) announced this week it would provide more than $40 million to 11 carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) projects across the province through its Carbon Capture Kickstart fund.
“What we’re really trying to do is catalyze a lot of the technical work that needs to be undertaken (to) actually see carbon capture technologies deployed,” ERA CEO Justin Riemer said in an interview with the Financial Post...
And why would the 'let the market decide' obsessed Alberta government (ostensibly) do such a thing?
Well...
...Nearly a dozen carbon capture projects from Alberta’s oilpatch and industrial sectors will receive an injection of cash from the provincial government aimed at accelerating the deployment of more than $20 billion in capital spending on emissions reduction...
Well...
...Nearly a dozen carbon capture projects from Alberta’s oilpatch and industrial sectors will receive an injection of cash from the provincial government aimed at accelerating the deployment of more than $20 billion in capital spending on emissions reduction...
But, as reader Bruce noted recently, it would appear that carbon capture, writ large, is worth pretty much absolutely nothing when it comes to reducing atmospheric CO2 emissions.
In other words, it's make-believe wrapped in PR speak designed to extend the life of fossil fuels, pure and simple.
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2 comments:
Pure and simple indeed, RossK.
Emissions Reduction Alberta is a registered tradename of the Climate Change and Emissions Management (CCEMC) Corporation. According to the funding regulation under Alberta’s EMISSIONS MANAGEMENT AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE ACT, the Corporation and the Corporation’s employees, agents, directors and officers are not agents of the Crown.
The press release says the Corporation will use over $40 million as an investment to kickstart $20 billion in carbon capture projects which will be up and running by 2030.
Now colour me cynical, but if industry was motivated by genuine concern for the environment and certain that CCUS was technically feasible, why would the projects be stalled and needing a “kickstart” of government funds amounting to 0.002 of the project costs to get moving? And if the government was similarly motivated, why wouldn’t it just legislate mandatory industry compliance with the stated emissions targets by 2030?
Lew
Why not legislate?
Well, then they might actually have to actually do it.
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