At Solve Climate, Stacy Feldman writes:
| The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) declared today that carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) is currently "viable," and that the only real obstacle to rapid deployment in the United States is political will. "There are no insurmountable technical, legal, institutional, or other barriers to the deployment of this technology," the agencies announced. However, without a price on carbon, the agencies said they were highly pessimistic about CCS's possibilities. "Widespread cost-effective deployment of CCS will occur only if the technology is commercially available at economically competitive prices and supportive national policy frameworks, such as a cap on carbon pollution, are in place," EPA and DOE said.... The study's show of confidence comes at an inauspicious time for the struggling industry. The infamous FutureGen project in Mattoon, Ill., announced in 2003 and once expected to be the world's first CCS plant, was officially scrapped last week by the DOE after years of cost overruns. In its place, the agency said it would spend $1 billion to carry out "FutureGen 2.0," which would retrofit a shuttered coal plant rather than build a new one. But in a letter this week to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the town of Mattoon said it would not provide land to store the CO2, causing an indefinite delay in the project. |
Be sure to check out the Gulf Recovery series. So far 13 diarists have contributed to this blogathon organized by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, noweasels and myself. More diaries will appear Friday. Links appear in the jump below.
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Green diary rescue appears on Thursdays and Sundays. Inclusion of a particular diary does not necessarily indicate my agreement with it. The GDR begins here and continues in the jump.
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Haole in Hawaii is one lucky fellow, as he let us know in Beautiful Birds of Botswana - A Photo Diary: "Aloha! I am back in the islands after my second once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Okavango and Linyanti wilderness of northwest Botswana. I have to say that re-entry into my work life and also into the blazing insanity that is American politics after two weeks of wildlife photography is jarring to say the least. This diary as all my diaries here is meant primarily as a respite from the craziness and as a reminder that we share this fragile planet with some incredible creatures." That is a Saddle-billed Stork (Ephippiorhynchus senegalensis) in the photo on the right.
continued at Daily Kos...
