CASPER, Wyo — A University of Wyoming economist is joining colleagues from the University of Texas-Austin for a major study of economic and political barriers related to carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS), the university announced Friday.
This research will complement work being done by UW’s School of Energy Resources to advance the geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from power generation and industrial sources, UW said.
Chuck Mason, UW’s H.A. “Dave” True Jr. Chair in Petroleum and Natural Gas Economics, and his Texas colleagues “will explore questions about CCUS costs; barriers to investment and implementation; and trade-offs relative to other climate mitigation approaches and policies,” UW said.
“The fact that large-scale deployment has not really taken off suggests that there are significant remaining economic and political barriers to implementing CCUS at scale,” the researchers wrote in their application for the $750,000, three-year grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Wyoming is the nation’s largest coal producer, and Texas and Wyoming together contain five of the 10 large-scale CCUS projects in operation in the United States. This adds up to 73% of the nation’s annual CO2 storage capacity, and 65 percent of the total miles of CO2 pipelines in the country, UW said.
Wyoming is touting CCUS as a key part of role in plans to reducing climate-changing CO2 emissions and keeping the industry afloat, but many projects have either stalled or been shut down due to market conditions.
The researchers note that current tax subsidies for CCUS have received bipartisan support — and that President Joe Biden’s climate plan includes increased CCUS incentives.
According to UW, the research will look in-depth at the effect of subsidies and other policies, as well as at CO2 sequestration sites, pipelines and other infrastructure.
