UKCCSC News 1 June 2007

Hi Folks,

Here’s the latest contemporary collection of carbon cuttings. The last week or so has seen plenty of high-profile stories that you’ve probably heard already, but here they are anyway:

1) The UK Government released an Energy White paper on May 23rd. Need I say that it hasn’t met with universal acclaim?

“It’s groundhog day. Another Commons statement. Another White Paper. Another barrage of consultation. But still none of the big decisions needed to get Britain on course for a low- carbon economy.” STEPHEN HALE, GREEN ALLIANCE

Comment: https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6685099.stm

The White Paper: https://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/whitepaper/
Also at: https://www.dtistats.net/ewp/

2) On the same day, BP announced that it is pulling out of the Peterhead / Miller Field CCS project.

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/north_east/6685345.stm

This decision didn’t meet with universal acclaim either, notably “a leading academic”, our own Stuart Haszeldine, was particularly scathing about government incompetence:

“The Government says it wants to lead a carbon capture and storage project. Well, it had a lead. Now it has a lead in hot air.”

https://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/article2581267.ece

3) The good ol’ US of A announced that it’s own plan for tackling climate change, while keeping the wheels of industry turning and the fat cats of commerce fat.

“US President George W Bush has seized the initiative on climate change in a move that pleased some fellow world leaders but infuriated his environmental critics.”

Even GWB can’t have expected universal acclaim for this. Tony Blair liked the plan though, funny that.

https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6710283.stm

The US ‘plan’ has been interpreted as an attempt to undermine the rest of the world’s attempts to do anything about climate change. The Guardian didn’t mince it’s words: “Bush kills off hopes for G8 climate change plan”

https://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,,2093055,00.html

4) BP and Rio Tinto plan clean coal project for Western Australia. This involves CCS of c. 4M tonnes CO₂ per year.

https://www.hydrogenenergy.com/release2.asp

5) The next item was sent by Jon Gibbins. It only just squeezed into the UKCCSC news as there’s no clear CCS component, only a mention of putting CO₂ “into a pipeline”. Clearly the usefulness of this depends on where the pipeline goes to !

“The Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory has issued a report that examines the feasibility of a commercial 50,000 barrel per day coal-to-liquids (CTL) facility in the Illinois coal basin.”

 https://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/press/2007/07040-Coal_to_Liquids_Study.html