Carbon capture report off the mark

A recent Regina Leader-Post article on carbon capture and storage technology (Carbon Capture wrong technology, says a new report, July 7) was based on research that was off the mark.

The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) incorrectly states that SaskPower’s Boundary Dam 3 project (BD 3) was ill conceived.

In the article, Opposition critic Cathy Sproule seizes upon this flawed research to dismiss CCS technology entirely.

We shouldn’t be surprised the GWPF holds this view. The organization has been described as “the United Kingdom’s most high-profile climate change denier group.”

What is surprising is that Ms. Sproule, who purports to be an environmentalist, is consorting with climate change skeptics to score political points.

Ms. Sproule knows there are many well-respected organizations who accept the science of climate change that have a more favourable view of CCS.

Indeed, both the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have said it will be impossible to meet international emissions reduction targets without the widespread deployment of CCS.

In fact, the same day the Leader-Post published its story, IEA chief economist Laszlo Varro said in a commentary that BD 3 and a similar project in Texas “have demonstrated that there is a solution to one of the most complex energy and climate dilemmas we face: a large global coal-fired power fleet that today provides around 40 per cent of the world’s electricity. This fleet is the youngest it has been for decades, with more than 500 GW (gigawatts) added since 2010, mostly in emerging economies.”

Mr. Varro highlights an unavoidable fact: The world depends on coal to generate electricity and will for the foreseeable future.

Given this reality, we will need a combination of policies, including the aggressive adoption of CCS, to deal with climate change.

Saskatchewan should be proud of what SaskPower has accomplished at Boundary Dam. The power station now produces the cleanest fossil fuel electricity in Canada — three times cleaner than natural gas.

Researchers have come from around the world to learn from SaskPower. They have come to Saskatchewan because this province is in the process of advancing an indispensable technology.

It’s time all of us got behind important work that has the ability to dramatically reduce emissions, not just in Saskatchewan and Canada, but around the world.

Scott Moe,

Minister of Environment, Government of Saskatchewan