The big gas companies — Woodside, Santos, Origin — and other fossil fuel giants like Chevron might have been forgiven for thinking they’d had an impressive victory on carbon capture and storage (CSS).
Even as the evidence continued to mount that it is a near-total failure, the gas companies — aided by their millions in donations, former politicians and political staffers in their ranks and their creatures within government — succeeded in opening the spigots of taxpayer funding for more CCS, not merely putting ordinary Australians on the hook for a failed technology but enabling massive new fossil fuel projects to be continued under the pretence that emissions will be geosequestered.
The failure of CCS is well-established, but for the mainstream media in Australia it’s a fringe view of environmentalist radicals and “government critics” who can be readily dismissed. The most a lot of press gallery journalists will admit to is that CCS is “divisive”, which calls to mind that Blackadder line about “opinion being divided” on whether you need a crew to sail a ship.
Enter Andrew Forrest, who inconveniently can’t be dismissed as a mad leftie or environmental radical. Forrest has very definite views on CCS: “Generally the world population has every reason to be sceptical that carbon sequestration … works because in 19 out of 20 times it’s failed.” He noted it had failed in Western Australia — an obvious reference to Chevron’s failed Gorgon CCS project, where even the relatively simple process of injecting carbon already captured underground hasn’t delivered.
Back in June, Forrest delivered a kicking to Santos’ Barossa gas project, north of Darwin, which he called “atrocious” and one of the “most polluting projects in the world”. That turned out to be right on the money.
Forrest described CCS as “good in a soundbite, but it doesn’t work in reality”. And that’s literally the government’s policy: announce CCS as a plausible part of Australia’s climate action, have that repeated by a compliant press gallery, and use it as a cover for inaction while more polluting fossil fuel projects proliferate.
The media, used to representing Forrest as a brilliant mining billionaire whose every utterance is worth coverage, finds itself in a difficult position as he sets about discrediting a policy that has been subjected to virtually no serious scrutiny even as hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money have been set aside for the gas giants to waste.
It also embarrasses Labor, whose only objection to CCS is the use of renewable funding from bodies like the Australian Renewable Energy Agency for it.
CCS is a handy bob-each-way policy for Labor to address its challenge of reconciling the climate action and fossil fuel diehards in its ranks. The fact that it doesn’t work in a practical sense is less relevant than how it works in a political sense.
As for the government, it’s unembarrassable on climate — what its donors want, its donors get.
Forrest might have a lot more to complain about by the time Scott Morrison does his deal with the Nationals on 2050.
If you haven’t seen these Honest Government ads by Juicemedia you’re in for a treat:
https://www.thejuicemedia.com/honest-government-ad-carbon-capture-and-storage/
Just watched it. Not bad; certainly explains how many ways we can be f***ed up the a*** by governments and business on CCS. (Hope this comment doesn’t take three days to arrive).
The Juice Media nails it every time.
CCS as a way to green-wash fossil fuel use is not a failure. It was a non-starter. It is a scam to allow coalminers and gas producers to masquerade as climate-esponsible. Every ton of C burned generates almost 4 tons of CO2. NO fossil-fueled operation can be viable if IT must pay for it’s own CO2 capture and sequestration. The ONLY thing being sequestered was public money in private pockets.
And it was the same with Tony Abbott’s direct action to replace Julia Gillard’s carbon price
Absolutely right. Remove politicians, have scientists in charge, and maybe the planet can survive.
If you think CCS is bad, just wait for Santos’ version of CCUS.
I am told Santos intend to use the CO2 extracted in their (subsidized) project to push out oil from hard to extract formations (thus producing more CO2 than ‘sequestered’). They also will get carbon credits for that very same CO2, and be able to re-sell them as abatement measures.
If true, this rates as one of the most evil schemes dreamed up in Australia.
Unfortunately not circular like Ouroborous.
More like the Human Caterpillar… each feeding on the other’s excreta.
A quarter of a Century ago when I worked in the Coal Mining Industry CCS was only to be found in cattle property paddocks – and – It still is.
How good is that – you Aussies have been B Sh#ted to for over a quarter of a Century and you still have not woken up.
I am not allowed to mention the N word to refer to Goebbels whom suggested to the effect – Tell them a big enough lie often enough and eventually they will believe it.
There are a lot more examples out there from this mob.
To be fair, we the public, have known CCS was BS for decades, but as long as pollies from both sides take their bribes, they will happily perpetuate the myths. Reminiscent of the smoking is sage days…
… smoking is safe days…
By the way Forrest’s companies Squadron Energy and Australian Industrial Energy are bidding for the new gas fired power station at Port Kembla in NSW which was announced by Angus Taylor, along with a $30M subsidy from the government.
So when Andrew bad mouths Blue Hydrogen with CCS, and then looks to take on a new gas power station, gas import handling facility with no CCS at Port Kembla one has to ask what drugs is he on.
The insatiable GREED drug, didn’t pay tax for 16 years and was proud of that achievement
Aah, he seems to have got that subsidy, however he is not exactly going to do what the gas producers may like.
“Squadron Energy was quick to point out on Tuesday that the new generator will limit the amount of fossil gas ever used at the plant, and it will run entirely on green hydrogen by the end of the decade.”
https://reneweconomy.com.au/forrest-punctures-taylors-gas-led-recovery-grant-with-quick-switch-to-green-hydrogen/
CCS is just more marketing spin from THE PENTECOSTAL. This process is a complete failure anywhere in the world and the Australian tax payer has tossed nearly a billion dollars down the toilet for some WA gas companies to buy more time before their businesses diminish down the same toilet.