Britain seeks to set pace in carbon capture quest

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain announced a shortlist of four firms on Monday in a tender to build the world’s first commercial-scale power plant to burn coal and gas without adding to global warming.

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) promises a technological solution to soaring emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning power plants — but with strings attached.

“It is the great panacea. It would mean not having to do the hard things like changing the way we live,” said Michael Grubb, chief economist at Britain’s Carbon Trust.

“The trouble is that while everybody says it can be done, no one has yet done it. There are very big companies out there with very deep pockets but even they are not doing it.”

The reason is cost.

Reuters