No More Fossil Energy Without Carbon Capture

The authors assert that avoiding the worst consequences of climate change requires virtually zeroing out electricity-related carbon emissions by mid-century, which necessitates the deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) for all fossil fuels. They highlight the critical risk posed by new coal power plants in China and India and criticize the U.S. policy approach as 'ad hoc and woefully inadequate', citing the shelving of American Electric Power's Mountaineer project. To drive deployment and lower costs, the authors recommend that the Obama Administration propose strong new source performance standards, the Department of Energy reform funding for initiatives like the Clean Coal Power Initiative, and Congress adopt significant industry incentives.

• The authors argue that the failure to implement carbon capture and storage (CCS) on new coal plants in China and India would make fighting climate change impossible, noting that China is projected to have over 950GW of coal power by 2015.
• The document states that carbon emissions from electricity production must be virtually eliminated by the middle of the century to address climate change.
• The authors claim that while the individual components of CCS are established—with industrial carbon capture existing for decades and the oil industry storing over a billion tons of CO2 since the mid-1970s—the U.S. has failed to implement the regulations and incentives needed to combine these technologies for widespread deployment.
• The shelving of the Mountaineer project by American Electric Power is cited as evidence of inadequate policy, with the company's CEO stating that recovering costs for carbon controls is impossible without greenhouse gas regulations.

APA

Schneider, C., & Waltzer, K. (2011). No More Fossil Energy Without Carbon Capture. Clean Air Task Force. https://www.catf.us/2011/07/no-more-fossil-energy-without-carbon-capture/

Chicago

Schneider, Conrad, and Kurt Waltzer. No More Fossil Energy Without Carbon Capture. Clean Air Task Force, 2011. https://www.catf.us/2011/07/no-more-fossil-energy-without-carbon-capture/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Schneider |first1=Conrad |last2=Waltzer |first2=Kurt |title=No More Fossil Energy Without Carbon Capture |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=19 July 2011 |url=https://www.catf.us/2011/07/no-more-fossil-energy-without-carbon-capture/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{schneider2011more, author = {Schneider, Conrad and Waltzer, Kurt}, title = {{No More Fossil Energy Without Carbon Capture}}, publisher = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2011}, month = jul, url = {https://www.catf.us/2011/07/no-more-fossil-energy-without-carbon-capture/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }