CO₂ Capture Needs A Market

For expensive, complex carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies to be developed and deployed at coal and other fossil-fuel power plants, regulations or a market requiring their use must exist, concludes a recent report by the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of Congress. The 100-page report documents the status of CCS technology development and stresses the importance of government CCS incentive programs as well as R&D efforts. The report examines past air pollution control technologies to reduce sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides and finds the U.S. is on a path to have carbon dioxide capture technologies commercially deployable by 2020, but such technologies may stall without incentives. The report discusses the impact of EPA’s proposed regulations requiring CO₂ capture technologies for new power plants on technology development as one driving force. The regulations are strongly opposed by coal-state congressional members and the coal industry. Absent a carbon reduction requirement, the report says, utilities will be unwilling to install CCS systems. Without commercial application, there is little to encourage the development of CCS systems or lower their costs, the report notes.