EXCLUSIVE: New Carbon Capture Tax Credit Would Drive Higher Emissions, Could Mislead Investors: The fossil industry and its allies have been intensifying their push
for carbon capture (CCUS) subsidies, with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney calling
for C$30 billion in federal largesse over 10 years. In an email
Tuesday, Ian Cameron, press secretary to Natural Resources Minister
Seamus O’Regan, said carbon capture technology “creates jobs, lowers
emissions, and increases our competitiveness. It’s an important part of
our government’s plan to get to net-zero emissions by 2050 and we are
working with all provinces, including Alberta, to keep Canada at the
forefront of this promising technology.”

But the signature tax measure that is generating much of the hype, the Section 45Q tax credit
[pdf] named for the relevant section of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code,
creates an incentive for power plant operators to emit more carbon,
while giving investors a false picture of projects’ viability, said
David Schlissel, a Massachusetts-based consultant associated with the
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

EXCLUSIVE: New Carbon Capture Tax Credit Would Drive Higher Emissions, Could Mislead Investors: The fossil industry and its allies have been intensifying their push
for carbon capture (CCUS) subsidies, with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney calling
for C$30 billion in federal largesse over 10 years. In an email
Tuesday, Ian Cameron, press secretary to Natural Resources Minister
Seamus O’Regan, said carbon capture technology “creates jobs, lowers
emissions, and increases our competitiveness. It’s an important part of
our government’s plan to get to net-zero emissions by 2050 and we are
working with all provinces, including Alberta, to keep Canada at the
forefront of this promising technology.”But the signature tax measure that is generating much of the hype, the Section 45Q tax credit
[pdf] named for the relevant section of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code,
creates an incentive for power plant operators to emit more carbon,
while giving investors a false picture of projects’ viability, said
David Schlissel, a Massachusetts-based consultant associated with the
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).Read More

Canada’s Opposition to Line 5 Closure Flies in the Face of Science, Courts Disaster, Ex-IJC Chair Warns – The Energy Mix: Canada’s position that it’s “Line 5 or bust”
also goes against well-established facts about what will happen
if—when—the pipeline literally busts open under the Straits of Mackinac,
Pollack says.

And it is only a matter of time before that happens, she adds: “The
danger of a breach of this age-compromised pipeline spanning a major
shipping lane in the world’s largest freshwater body increases with
every passing day.”

Although Pollack makes clear that she writes as a private citizen,
she does invoke her nine years as head of the IJC—an entity whose advice
was, and remains, “invariably based upon science and thoughtful
negotiations.”

In light of that history, she says, she would expect both countries
to acknowledge certain facts. First in that lineup? That examination of
Line 5 “shows thinning of the pipeline walls and a history of breaks in
the lakebed anchors essential to keeping the pipeline tightly fixed to
the lake bottom.” Further, she adds, “a current jury-rigged system of
bottomland attachments allows this bent and corroded pipeline to flex
and float in ways it was never designed to tolerate—stresses that
intensify the risk of a breach.”

Canada’s Opposition to Line 5 Closure Flies in the Face of Science, Courts Disaster, Ex-IJC Chair Warns – The Energy Mix: Canada’s position that it’s “Line 5 or bust”
also goes against well-established facts about what will happen
if—when—the pipeline literally busts open under the Straits of Mackinac,
Pollack says.And it is only a matter of time before that happens, she adds: “The
danger of a breach of this age-compromised pipeline spanning a major
shipping lane in the world’s largest freshwater body increases with
every passing day.”Although Pollack makes clear that she writes as a private citizen,
she does invoke her nine years as head of the IJC—an entity whose advice
was, and remains, “invariably based upon science and thoughtful
negotiations.” In light of that history, she says, she would expect both countries
to acknowledge certain facts. First in that lineup? That examination of
Line 5 “shows thinning of the pipeline walls and a history of breaks in
the lakebed anchors essential to keeping the pipeline tightly fixed to
the lake bottom.” Further, she adds, “a current jury-rigged system of
bottomland attachments allows this bent and corroded pipeline to flex
and float in ways it was never designed to tolerate—stresses that
intensify the risk of a breach.”Read More