CO2 (Pt. 2 of 2) – Carbon Trading May Be Dead For Now In US, But Billions Will Continue to Pour Into CCS | Energy Stocks Blog

While last week’s financial meltdown killed for now a nationwide carbon trading market in the United States, globally billions of dollars will continue to be spent on developing carbon capture and sequestration technology (CCS).

As much as Americans won’t be willing to pay higher utility bills to curb global warming, neither will they – nor billions of others in countries around the world – be willing to let governments slack off on developing technology to curb CO2 emissions from coal-fired power plants. Ironically, when CCS is ready for deployment, the global public may not be willing to pay for it, given that CCS might add as much as 50% to the cost of electricity from coal-fired power plants. But that won’t be for a number of years.

For now, it remains politically popular to push for CCS, a process that involves “capturing” CO2 emissions before they escape into the atmosphere and burying or “sequestering” them underground. Last week Reuters reported that the European Union is considering subsidies for CCS projects that could total as much as $14.2 billion and cover a wide range of energy equipment, services, construction and chemical companies.