This should be obvious, but of course you never hear it mentioned in stories about carbon capture and sequestration (CCS): capturing and sequestering carbon requires lots of energy; thus, plants that do it have to burn more coal to create that extra energy; thus, the other pollutants created by mixing, transporting, and burning coal will increase if CCS is widespread.
It follows just based on logic, but if you prefer peer-reviewed scientific studies, here's one for you:
Even with this extra burden [of having to generate more power], a CO2-burying plant emits between 71 and 78 percent less CO2 than a normal coal-fired plant for each unit of usable electricity produced, Koornneef and his colleagues report. But when the researchers factored in all the "cradle to grave" pollution of a CO2-burying plant, emissions of acid rain-causing gases like nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides were up to 40 percent greater than the total cradle-to-grave emissions of a modern plant that doesn't capture its CO2.
Doesn't sound very "clean" to me ...
Copenhagen, U.S.A. December 7
Make the kids pay: The economic effects of climate change on future generations
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dcwedgewood Posted 10:30 am
14 Aug 2008
Thanks for the article. It was great.
Sometimes it's difficult to decide whether to be more "global" or "local." Today, it's local.
I live in the middle section of New England - NH, to be exact. Acid rain, from my fellow citizens in the West and MidWest, is a huge problem. It's irritating because there's nothing we (in NH) can do to directly stop it - and the coal fired power plants don't listen to us.
So, given the choice between warmer days, loss of coastal areas, and other bad events, I would have to say that the cost of storing carbon emissions is not a great solution (for us).
I wish the management of and the investors in those coal fired power plants would build some windmills or solar panel farms - or come swim in some of our lakes...
- Dan
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Biodiversivist Posted 11:31 am
14 Aug 2008
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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amazingdrx Posted 1:49 pm
14 Aug 2008
http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog John Schneider, Northern Wisconsin
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Sean Casten Posted 10:35 pm
14 Aug 2008
And bad as CCS is, it is only the natural extension of the Clean Air Act, which follows the same approach. But you've heard that rant before...
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jamesmackenzie Posted 10:54 pm
14 Aug 2008
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sindark Posted 4:58 am
15 Aug 2008
a sibilant intake of breath
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