Making CCS a Reality

In a market economy like the US, the demand for a product is critical to its adoption and widespread use. In the case of an environmental technology such as CCS, whose sole purpose is to prevent an environmental release to the atmosphere, few if any markets exist in the absence of government actions and policies. For example, why would an electric utility company spend hundreds of millions of dollars to install CCS, even an improved lower-cost capture process, if there is no requirement or incentive to reduce CO₂ emissions? A costly action such as this provides little or no economic value to the company—indeed, the added cost and energy penalty of CO₂ capture increase the cost of operation. Only if a government action either requires CCS, or makes it financially worthwhile to reduce CO₂ emissions, would a sizeable market be created for technologies that enable such reductions.Thus, as with other environmental emissions that affect the public welfare, government actions are needed to create or enhance markets for CO₂ -reduction technologies like CCS.