Scientists Claim Carbon Capture Is Viable & Fossil Fuel Producers Should Bear The Costs

The economic system that currently prevails in most of the world assigns no value to the waste products — mostly carbon dioxide and methane — that are created when any fossil fuel is burned. Therefore, the companies that produce them pay nothing to clean up the carbon dioxide and methane they create. Can you imagine how this distorts the economic process? What if you were in business and could escape paying for your waste products? Who wouldn’t like that deal? You could privatize the profits and socialize the costs. Sweet!

Scientists in the UK, the US, and the Netherlands have published a study in the journal Environmental Research Letters that claims carbon capture is now a viable technology and fossil fuel companies should be paying to remove the carbon dioxide attributable to their activities and storing it geologically as a condition of being allowed to operate.

The study, authored by Stuart Jenkins, Margriet Kuijper, Hugh Helferty, Cécile Girardin, and Myles Allen, argues that fossil fuel companies should be subject to what they call “extended producer responsibility.” In other words, they should be responsible for cleaning up the mess they have made. Fossil fuel companies should be forced to “take back” the carbon dioxide emitted from their products, handing them direct responsibility for cleaning up the environment.

Subscribers can read the full article here: Scientists Claim Carbon Capture Is Viable & Fossil Fuel Producers Should Bear The Costs