Carbon Capture Remains A Fig Leaf For Fossil Fuel Industry
Carbon Engineering, now purchased by oil and gas giant Oxy, pumping new oil out of old wells
Carbon capture and sequestration in all of its various ineffective, inefficient and expensive forms is having another run up the hype cycle. Nothing has really changed. The problems still exist. The alternatives are still better. The potential for use is still minuscule. And so, the CCS Redux series, republishing old CCS articles with minor edits.
How many ways are there to say that mechanical direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide is a deeply stupid idea? Whatever the number is, I’ve probably used the majority of turns of phrase. So have many others. That, of course, doesn’t stop the fossil fuel industry, people that they influence, people who just don’t know any better and hopeful people with no STEM capabilities from loving the field.
And Occidental Petroleum just showed its love in a big way, committing $1.1 billion to buy Carbon Engineering, the Canadian-ish DAC firm that set up shop in Squamish, BC a few years ago. At the time, I was annoyed that the Canadian government was throwing taxpayer money at it, but unsurprised at how many fossil fuel companies had chipped in.
