WASHINGTON (June 12, 2019)—If the pronouncements from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are taken seriously, the world is in desperate need of a solution to global warming within the next decade, before it’s too late to stop runaway climate change. Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is a better and much less costly solution to carbon emissions than the proposed multi-trillion-dollar “Green New Deal.”

In a new policy study, R Street Energy Policy Manager Bill Murray finds that the technology to dramatically lower global warming risks already exists, but regulatory barriers created by the EPA have significantly undermined the rollout of these technologies. CCS technology has been working in the field since the early 1970s, but it lacks a clear path to deployment.

Murray found that by the end of 2018, there were 23 large-scale CCS facilities in operation or under construction around the world. However, Royal Dutch Shell estimates the world will need 10,000 such facilities by 2070 to properly contain the emissions threat.

Murray concludes that “over regulation of drilling rules has created a chilling effect on CCS investment and in light of this, a regulatory exemption regarding a specific portion of the Safe Drinking Water Act’s Underground Injection Control (UIC) rules would likely guarantee new demand for drilling permits.”

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