Why are the politicians so convinced CCS will work?
Again – it depends who you listen to. For example, the former Business Minister, John Hutton, launching the Energy White Paper on 10th January 2008, told Parliament: “By 2050 it is possible that most new coal-fired power stations will be able to deploy CCS technology…However, CCS is as yet unproven technology and we have to acknowledge there is some risk that safe and reliable CCS for power generation might not be proven or deployable at scale and at reasonable costs. This could happen if the projected costs turn out to be too high or if it proves to be difficult to develop safe ways to transport and store CO2.” The former Chancellor, Alistair Darling, was equally sceptical. When he was in the Department of Energy he told Parliament : “Yes, carbon capture and storage, if it can be developed, would help. But at this stage we cannot be certain of that. There is no commercial scale operation of CCS on power generation anywhere in the world.” The financial sector has also expressed reserva
