There's new evidence of a CO2 leak in Canada at the world's largest carbon capture site. A local farmer had a study done after leaks were killing animals and "sending groundwater foaming to the surface like shaken-up soda pop." It's a reminder for central Illinois that carbon capture projects are still largely untested.
The Canadian operation is designed to store CO2 underground and engages in enhanced oil recovery. The Tenaska company plans to capture CO2 at the proposed Taylorville coal plant and pipe an unknown portion of it to the Gulf Coast for enhanced oil recovery operations.
This raises several issues, first of which is that it could have an impact on Illinois ratepayers. Tenaska's cost projection for the plant depends on revenue generated by selling CO2 for enhanced oil recovery. What happens if more enhanced oil recovery operations begin to leak and are eventually shut down? The Taylorville plant would suddenly become much less profitable. Will Illinois ratepayers be forced to pick up the tab?
Enhanced oil recovery is an environmental impact of the Taylorville project that should be considered by the Department of Energy and other agencies before they lend more support. That's one of the points myself and others made at the DOE hearing in Taylorville back in November of 2009.
Finally, the possibility of CO2 leaking out of enhanced oil recovery projects brings into question how much carbon captured from the Taylorville plant will find its way into the atmosphere. Even more so because they're only committing to capturing about half their CO2 to begin with.
I might support higher electric rates for a real clean energy project. But the Taylorville Tenaska plant clearly isn't.