The industry also has repeatedly said that the United States will gobble up carbon-intensive oil from other countries such as Venezuela if Canadian crude is cut out of the equation.
On Friday, Stelmach said that other options to provide a financial incentive for carbon capture, such as raising the province's carbon price, would put Alberta at a disadvantage when the rest of North America is not doing the same.
"Our willingness to update our program is an example of Alberta taking action to reduce emissions while others continue to talk," Stelmach said.
Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500
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5 Comments
Add CommentTHIS IS AN ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE WASTE OF MONEY!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo capture and sequester JUST 10% of the world's CO2 emissions in this manner, we would have to pump the same volume of CO2 into the ground as the ENTIRE oil industry takes out of the ground in crude oil. All those trillions of dollars in oil drilling equipment would need to be duplicated somehow, just to capture 10% of the CO2 emissions that are destabilizing our climate. This is just a cynical political ploy to clean up the public relations problem that the Tar Sands has.
Here, I'll make their job even harder so this boondoggle is even more repulsive:
Just to extract and upgrade the tar sand bitumen into a refinable crude oil product requires an amount of natural gas that has 25% of the energy content of the crude oil. So for every 4 units of energy in a barrel of tar sands crude, they already had to burn 1 unit of natural gas just to get it to the refinery.
Then it still needs to be refined into petrochemicals, using still more energy. It is estimated that just the ELECTRICITY used to refine a gallon of gasoline could power an electric car just as far if not farther than that gasoline would in a regular car.
These tar sands operations still have huge sludge waste ponds from their extraction and upgrading operations that sit perilously close to the pristine rivers and boreal forests of the region. They need to regularly set off small artillery pieces to frighten away migratory birds since landing in the sludge is a quick death sentence. That alone should tell you how bad this waste can be.
Remember, the drug dealer will always try to find new and creative ways to keep their junkies hooked, especially when they're trying to kick the habit.
Thanks Sault,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'll add that purpose of converting tar to oil is primarily to burn the oil, and cars have no practical carbon capture solution.
Of course the extraction company is willing to spend this much on the project; it is a fraction of the money they stand to make and part of it isn't theirs to begin with. It's icing on a turd.
Doesn't the pursuit of carbon intensive energy extraction depending on secure co2 sequestration run the risk of catastrophic failure and release? In that case, might the result be catastrophic climate change/failure?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe easiest way to capture and store carbon is to leave it where it is...in the ground. Instead develop renewables which are abundant and ultimately cheaper than carbon when all the clean-up costs are counted. The only future for hydrocarbons is to extract the hydrogen by Pyrolysis and put the carbon in landfill.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHard luck on those who foolishly invested money in coal. They should have read the writing on the wall...
First we release captured and stored carbon. Carbon stored in oils, gasses, coals etc. took millions of years and an enormous amounts of energy to sequester.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow you release the carbon and recover about 10% of the input energy. You have a CO2 problem, no problem, you are going to re-sequester it again.
WoW! Canadians, the smartest people in the world! They have invented the Perpetual Motion machine. A Nobel prize is coming your way.