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Carbon Capture Convolution - An exploration of a plan to keep a New Mexico coal plant running
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- Title
- Carbon Capture Convolution (part I)
- Authors
- Jonathan P. Thompson
- Word count
- 2790 words
In this article, the author chronicles the implementation of carbon capture technology at a previously shuttered San Juan coal mine and coal-fired power plant.
I wanted to post this article because it highlights the shortfalls of carbon capture technology, the economic difficulties of implementing the technology, the convoluted tax system that companies like Enchant use to force American tax payers to cover the excessive costs incurred in these ventures, and the true localized economic and environmental impact associated with revitalization of carbon energy facilities. Most importantly though, the author touches on the realities faced by the residents of towns entirely centralized around carbon fuels extraction, refinement and use.
There is a part two behind the paywall, if you like this article I would suggest subscribing.
Quite intersting article. It is the first time that I see such a detailled approach on carbon caputure, accounting from the local social impacts to the business-level balace sheet.
In the chain envisioned here, the carbon dioxide would be used to extract more petroleum, which seems to defeat the purpose and seems to complicate the evaluation of teh carbon intensity of the considered power plant. It is not clear if the CO2 thus injected is guaranted to remain underground. It seems likely that it would eventually, albeit rather quickly, seep back into the atmosphere, further complicated the carbon balance sheet.
I seem to remember a paper in Nature in which researchers thoroughly evaluated the cost of such end-of-pipe capture and sequestration at $100/t.
Who exactly will pay those $100 is of course the big question, to which everybody's answer is "I don't care as long as it's not me". Inevitably though, those $100 will be passed along the value chain down to the retail prices of consumer's goods. This, for the average American consumer, will translate as an extra $2,200 bill, and there is no telling how this consumer, the market, and society will react to this extra bill.
We, the people of Earth, need to urgently close down not only the San Juan coal mine, but also every coal mine, gas rig and oil well. Attach to each of those, of course, are scores of workers and famillies and associated businesses. And of course almost as many voters. And then there are the investors, often with undue but far-reaching political influence, who are not going to give up their investments without a fight, a nasty dirty fight.
So yes, this article that bring big ideas and happy talks down to the gritty reality of a mining town in Mexico is a very good illustration of the gigantic transformative efforts ahead of us.
The science of mitigating climate change is quite simple : "dont't burn it, it won't emit."
What's difficult is to organise all that happens when you stop burning. One way to size the difficulty is to reckon that each of us owns about 500 energy slaves, and that we are on the verge of abolishing slavery.