Capturing and Storing Carbon

Obstacles to commercially viable carbon capture and storage (CCS) include technological, cost, regulatory, and liability issues.  Simply removing the CO2 from the gas stream currently requires almost one-third of a plant’s electricity output.  Once captured, the corrosive nature of liquefied CO2 could require construction of a new pipeline system to transport it to underground injection sites.

Storage of CO2 in deep saline and other suitable formations would be on a scale dwarfing any prior experiments in enhanced oil and gas recovery.  Capture and storage is expensive.  If CCS were installed universally today, a 16 percent increase in U.S. electricity production would be needed just to break even.  Assuring the long-term integrity of underground storage sites will entail additional and largely unknown costs.

The premise for CCS is that CO2 injected underground will remain there long-term, which raises some potentially difficult questions.  If CO2 escapes, who is liable for property damage or other impacts?  What if CO2 migrates underground and contaminates water or oil and gas reserves?  Because CCS is a key element of achieving federal climate change goals, the federal government will play an important role in resolving the uncertainties and risks created by state regulation.  The current federal regulatory structure has its own problems.  The Safe Water Drinking Act for example, creates significant risks and liabilities for CCS technology.