He pretends the technology is a serious response to the climate crisis. Here’s the reality.
For years now, the governments of Alberta and Canada have talked up the method as means to get “more low-risk, low-cost and low-carbon Canadian energy to market while fighting climate change.” Federal Energy Minister Tim Hodgson has said CCUS will help make Canada “a clean energy superpower.” Five oilsands producers hail CCUS as an “environmental innovation” or “proven technology.”
But that’s not what the scientific and economic record says. Study after study catalogues a history of high costs, serious risks, geological side effects and broken promises. Most high-profile projects have faced shutdowns, leaks or technical snafus.
In a recent paper, two oilpatch veterans delivered a familiar verdict: “Despite extensive funding and research, carbon capture technologies have failed to deliver scalable, cost-effective, or operationally robust outcomes.”
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CCUS is turning out to be a perfect example of what the social critic Jacques Ellul called the “technological bluff.”