Carbon capture and storage is being promoted as a way for electric utilities to cut their carbon emissions without shutting down existing coal and natural gas plants, and fossil fuel companies are using it to appear “green” and use far more of their products.
They make it sound like a win-win: Keep the grid stable while lowering necessary circle-of-life carbon dioxide. It’s a win-win for utilities and fossil fuel companies and a lose-lose for families and businesses. Adding carbon capture to electric utilities is a costly, inefficient, unnecessary, and harmful solution — especially for electricity users and industry.
Carbon capture and storage is unnecessary. Even if it is successful, which is doubtful, it will make little difference in total global carbon dioxide emissions. China gets 56% and India 75% of all its energy from coal, the fossil fuel with the highest emissions. Since 2000, China has increased its emissions by 200% and India by 150%, with no end in sight, and worldwide coal use continues to grow.
Both countries are building hundreds of coal plants that have lifespans of 50 to 75 years, and they intend to use them because coal is reliable, low-cost, and abundant. China emits more real pollution and carbon dioxide than all other industrial nations combined.
Because of additional carbon dioxide, the world is a far greener place. According to NASA, the world is 35% greener over the last 40 years, and it attributes 70% of the greening to additional carbon dioxide. Crop yields in nearly every nation and across all crops are up dramatically because of the fertilization provided by carbon dioxide. In fact, most crops grow far better at three to four times the carbon dioxide level we have now, which will take 180 years to double.
Carbon capture is very expensive. Retrofitting a typical 500-megawatt coal plant with carbon capture and storage can cost between $500 million and $750 million, and retrofitting natural gas plants costs only marginally less. After being retrofitted, they will burn 30% more coal and 20% more natural gas. It is ratepayers who will pay the extra fuel costs and the cost of construction, dramatically increasing electricity prices by as much as $300 to $500 per year, harming low-income families the most.
Most regulated utilities will add the costs and be rewarded with a guaranteed rate of return of 8% to 10% on those additional costs. Utilities get more profits from carbon capture and storage, and we get higher electric rates. The fossil fuel industry sells more and gets more profits, and we get higher bills and less money in our pockets.
Manufacturing, agriculture, and data centers are highly sensitive to energy costs. If electricity rates rise, which carbon capture and storage guarantees, businesses will have less money to invest in growth, fewer profits, or less to return to shareholders. Some will relocate to states or countries with cheaper energy. That’s not just bad for companies — it’s bad for jobs, economic development, and regional competitiveness.
Carbon capture and storage haven’t been proven at scale. Several high-profile carbon capture and storage projects have failed outright or underperformed massively. The Kemper coal plant in Mississippi was supposed to be a model for “clean coal” with carbon capture. Instead, it ballooned in cost to $7.5 billion and was eventually abandoned. This failed project led to 15% rate hikes — consumers endured the pain and got nothing.
Another project, Petra Nova in Texas, operated for a few years but was taken offline in 2020 due to high operating costs and low oil prices, which made its enhanced oil recovery economics unattractive. It was piping the carbon dioxide to get more oil out of the ground. In just three years, it did not work for 367 days — it also missed its targets by 17%.
Supporters of carbon capture and storage point to large federal subsidies such as the 45Q tax credit, giving them $85 per ton of carbon dioxide captured and stored. Taxpayer subsidies don’t make bad ideas good — they just shift some of the cost burden from ratepayers to taxpayers. Whether it’s your electric bill or your federal taxes, you’re still paying.
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All of the taxpayer money is borrowed, fueling inflation, and causing a national debt of $37 trillion, with nearly a trillion in annual debt servicing. We can’t afford to waste money on this anymore. These huge subsidies and the regulations that require them, thanks to former President Joe Biden, make no economic or environmental sense. All financial pain for little or no gain, except for utilities and fossil fuel companies.
President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans must put a stake through the heart of the vampire that is carbon capture and storage. It will suck the economic lifeblood out of our families’ budgets and energy-consuming businesses such as manufacturing and AI data centers. Keep our electric rates low and stop the climate policy madness.
Frank Lasee is president of Truth in Energy and Climate.