Carbon sequestration: A costly pipedream

Need to disabuse someone of the notion that carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is a viable strategy?

University of Houston energy expert Michael Economides says in this recent study that CCS for just Kyoto Protocol-type CO2 cuts in the U.S. would require the drilling of 161,429 injection wells by 2030 at a cost of 1.61 trillion dollars — and there’s no guarantee that the CO2 would stay sequestered, much less accomplish anything for the climate.

That price tag doesn’t include the cost of capturing the CO2 at the point of generation, purchasing rights of way for pipelines, pipeline installation costs, liability insurance etc. Economides says the total cost may be as high as $1 trillion annually.

Waxman-Markey-type CO2 limits, which are much more Draconian than the Kyoto Protocol, would obviously be even more expensive.

It’s quite a price to pay for something that may not work and, even if it did, would accomplish nothing.

9 thoughts on “Carbon sequestration: A costly pipedream”

  1. I don’t like the idea of putting a Carbon molecule that might someday become something to eat and an O2 molecule that I could breath underground. Holding any gas underground could be quite tricky. Get out of the car if you think it is safe and look at the rocks in any road cut. There are a lot of fractures and seams for movement up, sideways or in any different direction. Maybe some of those fractures are due to blast damage but not all of them. Injecting CO2 could mix with water and create Carbonic acid that would disolve common Carbonates that hold many rock formations together. Injecting into aquifers could cause them to collapse and lose the ability to hold and transport water. CO2 is a harmless gas as long as you do not concentrate it. It then becomes dangerous because it might smother animals, including humans, in the event of a catastrophic sudden release.

  2. Years ago visiting the Hershey’s Kisses production line it occurred to me that most folks have no idea of the concept of scale. Let’s have a picture of all the CO2 produced yearly as one large block of “dry ice” and ask for green-acceptable locations to place. Maybe Al Gore’s backyard?

  3. I think I will start a anti green movement and protest at each site considered for sequestering of Co2 . IT is a detriment to man kind and just as possible if not more to cause human death and tragedy as a nuclear power plant.

  4. I want it to be sequestered right under the white house and that way if it escapes all at once, we will then kiss our representatives good by. Is there any sense at all in the congress ? I am beginning to wonder , I do not want it with in 500 miles of my state as if the CO2 did escape it would more then likely be all at one time killing every one for miles around . 1,700 people have died already from a similar happening only this was a natural item a volcano lake erupted and belched out Co2 and killed over 1700 people and over 3,000 farm aninmals .

  5. I just saw a comercial talking about ways to save two million pounds of carbon yearly. I still haven’t found a rational calculation how to translate CO2 into weight. We know exchanging carbon credits(whatever they are) has nothing to do with reducing none existent CO2 pollution, it is just a way for some scum to make money. The government, starting with POTUS does not care about you and I they have their own agendas which are either power or money or both.

  6. 50 years from now it will be our children and grandchildren who say, “They should have imprisoned Waxman, Markey, and Gore for the autrocities against man kind for creating a completely fabricated set of circumstances as Man Made Global warming.” The real problem is the government is acting in their own interest and spending money we do not have.

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