Unleashing technological potential through regulation: Scrubbing away pollution

The authors contend that the U.S. EPA has sufficient evidence to base CO2 emissions standards on carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. They draw a parallel to sulfur dioxide scrubbers, which were rarely used before 1971 but became industry standard after emissions regulations were implemented. The text highlights that while only four U.S. power plants currently use carbon scrubbers, the historical example of sulfur scrubbers shows that regulation can rapidly increase vendor availability, lower costs through 'learning by doing', and significantly increase pollution removal efficiency.

• The historical deployment of sulfur dioxide scrubbers demonstrates that pollution control technologies often remain unused until regulation or incentives force industry adoption. In 1971, before sulfur standards, only three commercial scrubber units operated on U.S. power plants with a single vendor; by the late 1970s, this grew to approximately 119 units and 16 vendors.
• Regulation of sulfur dioxide led to significant technological improvements and cost reductions over two decades, with costs decreasing by half and removal efficiency increasing from 70% to over 95%. Currently, 93% of power plant sulfur emissions are prevented from entering the atmosphere.
• Post-combustion carbon capture is characterized as an 'end-of-the-pipe' technology similar to flue gas desulfurization (FGD) sulfur scrubbers. While currently installed on only four U.S. power plants with 13 available vendors, the authors argue it is more proven today than sulfur scrubbers were before their respective standards.

APA

Sturges, F., & Duffy, J. (2023). Unleashing technological potential through regulation: Scrubbing away pollution. Clean Air Task Force. https://www.catf.us/2023/05/unleashing-technological-potential-through-regulation-scrubbing-away-pollution/

Chicago

Sturges, Frank, and Jay Duffy. Unleashing technological potential through regulation: Scrubbing away pollution. Clean Air Task Force, 2023. https://www.catf.us/2023/05/unleashing-technological-potential-through-regulation-scrubbing-away-pollution/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Sturges |first1=Frank |last2=Duffy |first2=Jay |title=Unleashing technological potential through regulation: Scrubbing away pollution |publisher=Clean Air Task Force |date=5 May 2023 |url=https://www.catf.us/2023/05/unleashing-technological-potential-through-regulation-scrubbing-away-pollution/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{sturges2023unleashing, author = {Sturges, Frank and Duffy, Jay}, title = {{Unleashing technological potential through regulation: Scrubbing away pollution}}, publisher = {Clean Air Task Force}, year = {2023}, month = may, url = {https://www.catf.us/2023/05/unleashing-technological-potential-through-regulation-scrubbing-away-pollution/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }