Greenwash Watch: Catching CO2 With A Butterfly Net
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 12.12.08
It seems like Fun With Advertising Week at TreeHugger; first with Clean Coal Carolers, and now with the fantasy behind clean coal, carbon capture and storage. (CCS). Shell is running this ad in the New Yorker, noting that "Perfecting CCS won't be easy, but we believe it is needed to tackle CO2 emissions." But what are they really saying in that headline? That it is impossible.
Now that might just be bad copywriting, but if not impossible, it is damned hard. As they point out on the Shell website, it ain't easy. How much energy does it take to liquify CO2 and transport it by pipeline or truck? To drill and pump it more than a mile below ground? They are proposing this demonstration plant in sunny Australia- how many square miles of photovoltaics or other solar technologies would this pay for?
It certainly seems as effective as, well, trying to catch CO2 with a butterfly net.
More on CCS in TreeHugger and Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/graham-hill/kiss-of-death-for-carbon_b_150464.html
FutureGen's Plan to Bring CCS to Illinois in Trouble?
Carbon Capture And Sequestration ( CCS ) Update: Capture Methods ...
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