Huffington Magazine Issue 66 | Page 71

THE CARBON QUANDARY day, only 70 or so such projects are in the planning stages, and only a handful are actually under construction. Many of these facilities, including the beleaguered FutureGen project in Meredosia, Ill., have moved forward in fits and starts over the last decade, as whispers of tough new climate policies have come and gone, and meager government subsidies have waxed and waned. According to a catalog maintained by Herzog’s office at MIT, only one large-scale demonstration project, in Norway, is currently operational worldwide. Without a real price on carbon, that’s unlikely to change, Herzog says. “You really need to put a price on carbon and to raise it over time,” he says. “Let these technologies come in over time.” Speaking at Georgetown University in June, U.S. President Barack Obama did introduce a new plan for addressing climate change that included a call for tough new CO₂ emissions limits not just on proposed new power plants, but on existing ones as well. He also carved out $8 billion in new federal loan guarantees aimed at developing various advanced fossil energy technologies — including HUFFINGTON 09.15.13 CCS. This comes atop some $6 billion that has been appropriated by Congress since the 2008 fiscal year for carbon capture development, according to a Congressional Research Service report published “You really need to put a price on carbon and to raise it over time. Let these technologies come in over time.” earlier this month. The president’s newly appointed energy secretary, Ernest J. Moniz, has also stated clearly that CCS — both for coal and natural gas plants — is a national imperative if the president’s goal of cutting national carbon emissions by 80 percent over the next 40 years is to be met. Whether this will actually happen is impossible to know. Critics of Obama’s climate agenda, which naturally includes deep-pocketed fossil fuel inter