Jaro
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec01/co2_8-6.html
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Exploring sequestration
SPENCER MICHELS: Ever since the Industrial Revolution, man has been producing more and more carbon dioxide, by burning fuels containing carbon. Today, 25 billion tons a year are produced. While much of the CO2 is absorbed on Earth in plants and the ocean surface, a huge amount goes into the atmosphere, where it and other gases create a kind of lid around the globe --the so-called greenhouse effect. Heat that would normally escape into space is thus reflected back to Earth, raising global temperatures.
Although President Bush first sounded skeptical that removing CO2 and storing, or sequestering, it was practical, after environmentalists loudly objected, he softened his position.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: We all believe technology offers great promise to significantly reduce emissions, especially carbon capture, storage and sequestration technologies.
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SPENCER MICHELS: CO2 can also be stored in other geological formations in parts of the country not near oil fields. Even environmentalists aren't completely opposed to using underground storage.
DAVID HAWKINS [NRDC] : It does make sense in our view to explore storing carbon underground in stable geologic formations. We think there's technical promise there and we think that as part of a portfolio of responses that this could be something that could work out.
"The clock is ticking..."
SPENCER MICHELS: An unsolved problem for many of these techniques is capturing carbon dioxide at its source, before it is released into the air, so it can be liquefied and disposed of.
At the Moss Landing power plant a huge scrubber chemically removes some polluting gasses including nitrogen oxide from the exhaust. But there is no equivalent device available to collect CO2 on a large scale. Duke Energy is retiring and dismantling an old power unit, and erecting a new one, which will burn gas more efficiently, emitting less carbon dioxide.
But scientists say efficient power plants alone will not solve the problem of too much CO2. Many contend that all approaches to carbon dioxide reduction need to be evaluated now because the problem of greenhouse gas is becoming critical.
PETER BREWER: By about the year 2025, we're going to have to be putting away very large amounts of carbon dioxide somewhere. If that's going to happen in 2025, things should start being built about 2015. And we should have the research done by about 2010, and the clock is ticking right now.
SPENCER MICHELS: Still, environmentalists are uneasy with the new emphasis on CO2 disposal. They continue to push for more efficient cars and power plants, and lower energy use.