Capturing King Coal

The document discusses the role of carbon capture and storage (CCS) as a potential bridging technology to allow the continued use of coal while reducing CO2 emissions. It argues that while CCS is viewed as a way to maintain the energy status quo, deploying it at a national scale would require a transformation of energy infrastructure as fundamental as a large-scale shift to wind energy.

• Coal combustion in the U.S. generates approximately 1.9 billion tons of CO2 annually, a volume comparable to the total annual CO2 emissions from the U.S. transport sector.
• Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is viewed by policymakers and environmentalists as a bridging technology that could allow coal to remain central to the energy mix without further destabilizing the climate, offering an alternative to the systemic changes required by nuclear, wind, or solar power.
• Deploying a national CCS system at the scale required for significant emissions reductions is highly complex and would necessitate a transformation of energy infrastructure as fundamental as the large-scale adoption of wind energy.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Capturing King Coal. https://www.wri.org/research/capturing-king-coal

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Capturing King Coal. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/capturing-king-coal.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Capturing King Coal |url=https://www.wri.org/research/capturing-king-coal |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendcapturing, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Capturing King Coal}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/capturing-king-coal}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }