Any carbon sequestration approach must operate at a substantial energy
profit versus coal.
It's not enough to show that it is possible to remove CO2 from the
atmosphere and sequester it effectively in enormous amounts over very
long time scales, though that is difficult enough. It is necessary to
show that the energy in doing so is much less than the energy obtained
from the least carbon-efficient source.
Failing this, the owners of that resource will continue to want put
carbon into the environment at a profit and force the rest of us to
pay for it at a loss.
If we try to tax them out of business they will do exactly what they
are doing, which is to confuse the public and prevent a sensible
solution from emerging.
I would rather not reward them for this behavior, but I would put
saving us from catastrophe ahead of that. We will be saved if there is
a way to burn coal and sequester carbon in a way that releases almost
as much net energy and costs hardly more than the conventional coal
cycle without sequestration.
Carbon sequestration proposals need to make more sense,
environmentally, energetically and economically, than leaving the coal
in the ground. I am not optimistic about such a solution but I am very
strongly in favor of it, if it might actually exist.
Absent that happy but unlikely outcome, every sensible policy I have
heard of is a direct economic threat to coal interests.
I have never heard anyone propose a way to pay the owners of coal
resources to keep the coal in the ground. I'm wondering if that should
be considered.
mt
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