Another financial opportunity for CO2 scare merchants

Posted: May 21, 2014 by oldbrew in alarmism, Energy, government, Politics

CCS process [image credit: European Commission]

CCS process [image credit: European Commission]


It’s well known that there’s big money to be made peddling unproven claims that the world’s climate is under threat from man’s activities, and the BBC seems keen to publicise such things.

The latest idea to join the queue at the ‘climate change trough’ is to charge countries for burying their ‘surplus’ CO2 under the North Sea. It’s a variation of the carbon capture and storage plans that seem to be going nowhere fast.

A better idea might be to use the same sites as shale gas storage but at a guess the BBC won’t be promoting that any time soon.

The BBC report says: ‘The UK’s exhausted oil and gas fields in the North Sea could be transformed into a lucrative dump for Europe’s CO2 emissions, MPs say.’

‘MPs say’ turns out to be – no surprise – Tim Yeo who could be described as, let’s say, controversial.

Oil and gas fields in UK could become CO2 dumps, say MPs

Comments
  1. ren says:
    May 21, 2014 at 11:48 am

    Please see what happens with ozone at an altitude of about 30 km. South polar vortex is now very strong, and despite it can be seen blocking.

  2. ren says:
    May 21, 2014 at 12:10 pm

    The location of the vortex causes the now cooling of the eastern Pacific, which reduces the possibility EL Niño.

  3. oldbrew says:
    May 21, 2014 at 12:12 pm

    Record Antarctic ice doesn’t tell us we need to bury CO2 underground either.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2014/05/16/record-polar-ice-extent-debunks-antarctic-global-warming-scare/

  4. Steve C says:
    May 21, 2014 at 3:07 pm

    Strange how extracting a modest amount of stuff – shale gas, say – from underground will lead inexorably to earthquakes, polluted groundwater, the rape of the Earth, etc., whilst pumping endless quantities of CO2 into the ground under colossal pressure is completely harmless, benevolent and stamped with the Green Capitalists’ Seal of Total Approval. I know which one I’d rather live on top of, and the big compressed gas bomb isn’t in the running.

    Someone should open a book on how long before the first batch of subterranean CO2 gets bored living underground under pressure and makes a break for freedom. Possibly the maritime insurance experts have already done so, if the North Sea is to be an early experiment in this nonsense.

  5. oldbrew says:
    May 21, 2014 at 3:57 pm

    And CO2 won’t capture, compress, transport or bury itself so they’ll have to use – shock – energy to do all those things and more.

  6. hunter says:
    May 21, 2014 at 5:35 pm

    The cost vs. benefits of CO2 sequestration are at best dubious. In this case they are contrived to the point of resembling a financial swindle.

  7. tom0mason says:
    May 21, 2014 at 5:42 pm

    I wonder if there is much of a market in selling carbon abatement certificates?

  8. oldbrew says:
    May 21, 2014 at 5:43 pm

    Or they could just bottle it and sell it as miracle cure for insomnia, or something.

  9. Joe Public says:
    May 21, 2014 at 6:02 pm

    Why not use it as a fracking medium, instead of water & the 1,001 ‘chemicals’ the Beeb keeps reminding us are used?

    OK /sarc.

  10. oldbrew says:
    May 21, 2014 at 6:13 pm

    Joe: no sarc, it’s been done already.

    ‘Right now carbon dioxide fracking is used in places, like Wyoming, that already have carbon dioxide pipelines.’
    http://www.technologyreview.com/news/512656/skipping-the-water-in-fracking/

  11. Major player abandons research on CO2 storage | Tallbloke's Talkshop says:
    May 23, 2014 at 9:49 am

    […] oldbrew on Another financial opportunity… […]

  12. Gail Combs says:
    May 23, 2014 at 3:05 pm

    ren says: @ May 21, 2014 at 12:10 pm

    “The location of the vortex causes the now cooling of the eastern Pacific, which reduces the possibility EL Niño.”
    >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

    Thank you ren. That goes along with my thoughts that:

    Solar activity level ==>ozone ===> polar vortex/jet stream zonal or meridonal flow ===> changes in the winds that drive the West Wind Drift/Antarctic Circumpolar Current .

    Then add the restriction at Drake Passage so the amount of cold Antarctic water flowing up the side of South America (Humboldt Current) varies with the winds that drive the Antarctic Circumpolar Current .

    F. H. Haynie, a former EPA scientist made the comment at WUWT:

    If I were asked to pick a single point on earth that most likely has the greatest effect on global weather and climate, it would be 0 and 90W (Galapagos). This is where El-nino winds, the deep sea Cromwell current, the Panama current, and the Humboldt current meet. These flows are not constant and each has different cycles and those cycles are not constant. Cycles on cycles create extremes in weather and climate. These extremes have an effect globally. I suspect these cycles are also controlling our observed atmospheric concentration of CO2. CO2 is very likely a lagging indicator and not a cause of climate change.

    It is interesting that Antarctic and its changes and affects on the Pacific and the Atlantic are pretty much ignored in the scientific literature as is the effect of ozone.

    A similar situation happens along the African coast where a branch of the Circumpolar Antarctic Current runs up the side of the African coast and effects the Atlantic/Gulf Stream.

    CHAPTER 31 OCEAN CURRENTS: TYPES AND CAUSES OF CURRENTS (Maritime Safety Information) has a good map of the various currents and descriptions.

    [mod – no link to ‘comment’]

  13. Brian H says:
    June 20, 2014 at 9:15 pm

    “Lucrative” for sequesterers = ruinous for taxpayers, etc.