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CARBON CATCH & RELEASE

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Written by John Glassco   
Friday, 27 November 2015 10:12
Is Carbon Capture and Sequestration, (CCS,) the future for the fossil fuel industry to fix the problem of atmospheric carbon? It seems like a side issue for now, but honestly, we are making no real, measurable progress with this issue.

The fossil fuel industry will stage their final battle here, in this unproven last bastion. They will argue their case using Trump-like logic, and continue their tepid steps toward CCS as a foil. They will request that we allow them to dig-up and spend their buried treasure, their proven reserves, as long as they continue to "explore" CCS. Much like the questions of the relationship between smoking and health, CCS is full of endless questions.

Remember when developing "safer" cigarettes inspired the smoking public? It turned out that the "safer" cigarette was a myth crafted to satisfy the skeptics and prolong sales to an ignorant public.

Trust in the future possibility of CCS has fully captured the imaginations of the oil, gas, coal lobby because, in theory, it erases the problem of carbon building-up in the atmosphere - but only if it works. Also, almost incidentally, it must cost less to perform CCS mitigation than the market value of the energy produced, a LOT less.

I personally believe that this will be the eventual sticking point that finally scuttles this flawed strategy. The storage for ever of CO2, a gas at room temperature, underground, has a thousand unanswerable questions at its core.

CCS is a technique of which we have little field experience and a growing list of qualified experts are questioning whether we should hang our atmospheric carbon control hat on such a flimsy hook. The industry offers few other sensible alternatives to the public that I can find to provide what they call "firm" power.

The fossil fuel industry addresses us cynically in their ads as their "Energy Voters." They continue to do this without ever bringing up any of the environmental consequences of atmospheric carbon, except I presume when ordered to by a court of law.
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