NN#4: Carbon Capture Follies

Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is suddenly vogue again. But its business case is as bad as it’s ever been. So why now? Show notesNicola Clarke, “383 million tonnes of CO2 permanently stored underground, a new report shows,” IEAGHG, November 17, 2025. Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage, IEA. Myles McCormick and Amanda Chu, “Can Exxon build the world’s biggest carbon capture business?,” Financial Times, May 25, 2026. Nicole Kaeding, “Admitting FutureGen’s Failure,” Cato Institute, February 10, 2015. International Energy Agency, “Storing CO2 through Enhanced Oil Recovery”, IEA GHG, 2015. Weyburn-Midale Carbon Dioxide Project, Wikipedia. “The False Promise and Potential Health Harms of Carbon Dioxide Enhanced Oil Recovery (CO2 EOR) as a Tool of Climate Mitigation,” Science and Environmental Health Network and Bold Alliance, August 2024.  Richard H. Worden, Mike Stephenson, and Jon Gluyas, “Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage (CCS) in Saline Aquifers versus Depleted Gas Fields”, Geosciences, 2024, Vol. 14, Article 146. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences14060146 Philip S. Ringrose and Mark A. Meckel, “Storage of Carbon Dioxide in Saline Aquifers”, Annual Review of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, 2021, Vol. 12, 157–184. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-chembioeng-093020-091447 Yingqi Zhang and colleagues, “The feasibility of reaching gigatonne scale CO2 storage by mid-century”, Nature Communications, 2024, Vol. 15, Article 7608. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51860-4 Press release: “Carbon TerraVault Provides First Quarter 2026 Update,” Carbon TerraVault, LLC, May 5, 2026. Yufei Li and Eric Wright, “2026 CCUS: Navigating the tides of the great realignment,” S&P Global Commodity Insights, April 14, 2026. Yamini Kalia in ​Bengaluru and Stephanie Kelly, “BP to sell stakes in flagship UK carbon capture projects in Northern England,” Reuters, May 2, 2026. Stella Yotova, “What’s Next for Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage (CCUS) in 2026?,” Carbon Herald, January 13, 2026.  Bidattul Syirat Zainal, I.M.R. Fattah, Hwai Chyuan Ong, Oki Muraza, Normaniza Osman, and T.M. Indra Mahlia, “Recent advancements and assessment of carbon capture technologies for climate crisis mitigation,” Chemical Engineering Journal, Vol. 536, Article 175776, May 15, 2026. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2026.175776 Live Carbon Prices Today, CarbonCredits.com M.H. Rasool, “Carbon capture and storage: An evidence-based review of its effectiveness, sustainability and strategic role in climate mitigation”, Petroleum Research, 2025. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptlrs.2025.05.002