Can you imagine a future with a lot more coal-burning power plants and heavy oil refineries processing oil sands, but with no or little increase in greenhouse gases? President Obama can.
It will be a green, green solution for the US and Canada, if President Obama’s presentation to Canadians on his first foreign trip as US president can become a reality. What if US and Canadian companies could get together and develop systems and technologies to capture and sequester underground carbon-dioxide emissions and free up greater use of Canadian tar sands and US coal?
In 1995, The Kyoto Protocol, ratified by 175 countries and territories (though not the US), called for reducing greenhouse gases by 5% between 1998 and 2012. One such option for this is carbon sequestration, using carbon dioxide reservoirs or sinks. Natural sinks are found in the oceans (where CO2 can be pumped to form “lakes” trapped on the sea bottom below the denser seawater) or in areas of grasslands and forests where carbon is removed from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.
In principle it would be the answer to spurring oil sands development in Canada (a Saudi Arabian-size energy resource) and coal plant development in the US. As is stands now, the development of both countries’ most abundant natural resources is stymied, in large part, by the “dirty” nature of their exploitation, which require the release of large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Refining oil from oil sands results in more than 20% greater CO2 release per barrel than the production of conventional light oil. Coal burning power plants also pump large amounts of CO2 into the air.
Given that the US imported about 780,000 barrels a day of Canadian oil tar-sands oil in 2008 (or about 60% of total production), the incentive for US help is obvious.
Canadian oil giant Petro-Canada, in concert with other producers (such as Suncor Energy, Imperial Oil, and Canadian Oil Sands Trust), expect to more than double industry output by 2020 to 3.3 million barrels a day. (All told, Alberta’s oil sands hold about 173 billion barrels).
And while Canada’s energy industry is willing to invest money, technology, and know-how to enable massive exploitation of oil sands, the cost of making that production environmentally acceptable is beyond the means of Canadian companies alone. According to Petro-Canada CEO Ronald Brenneman, per a Bloomberg report, “It will take the combined efforts of the industry, government, regulators, and consumers.” And of the US energy industry and government.
According to President Obama, reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from energy sources such as coal and oil sands will promote economic growth in both countries. It will also improve the US’ long-term energy security issues, by decreasing dependence on Middle Eastern crude.
With the recently passed Stimulus Package including some $3.4 billion for investment and research in carbon sequestration and storage, and with Canada’s Economic Action Plan adding $1 billion for similar activities, both Canada’s oil sands advocates and the US clean coal lobby are hoping to leverage the financial commitment into industry breakthroughs.
Carbon sequestration technology has a long way to go to become commercially viable, but real money is now being thrown its way.
Some aerial photographs of the Alberta tar sands that might be of interest to you. Please contact me if you would like copies and/or know a publication that does.