U.S. officials visit Saskatchewan to learn about carbon capture

Delegates from the United States were in Saskatchewan on Tuesday to tour the carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility at Boundary Dam 3 in Estevan.

The controversial project — which was closed for repairs over the bulk of the summer — was visited by academics from thinktanks as well as those working for the U.S. government.

Rachel McCormick, head of the energy and environment section at the Embassy of Canada in Washington, D.C., says there are lots of conversations taking place down south about the technology, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by producing cleaner coal.

“SaskPower is seen as a world leader in the sense that this is the first of its kind and that leadership has been recognized,” she said.

U.S. President Donald Trump is proposing to reduce funding for CCS research by more than threequarters, but McCormick said that is an “opening position in a long conversation” from the administration and there is still interest in the technology within Congress and at the state level.

Ian Mead, assistant administrator for energy analysis within the U.S. Department of Energy, said he was on the tour because the U.S. and Canada are each other’s biggest trading partners.

He said there are “a lot of competing factors out there” when it comes to reducing emissions, but that research and development is needed to keep things moving along.

Samantha Gross, a fellow for energy and climate issues at the Brookings Institute in Washington, D.C. said CCS is “situation specific” with where it will work.

She characterized Saskatchewan as a “particularly good place to start with carbon capture and storage” because there is a local coal supply, a local coal industry and someone purchasing the CO2 resulting from the CCS technology.

“It’s great to see the technology get started,” she said, later adding there are a “suite of solutions to get to where we need to go” when it comes to reducing greenhouse gases.

Saskatchewan taxpayers spent $1.5 billion on CCS technology and it is a central piece in Premier Brad Wall’s ongoing effort to hold off a federally imposed carbon tax being put in place.