Carbon Capture Is Not Carbon Sequestration

Don't jump to the conclusion when reading this story that there has been a successful test of coal-fired generating station carbon sequestration - - a process that King Coal hopes will keep coal generating plants running far into a cap-and-trade future.

This isn't a knock on the author, the expert writer Tom Content.

It's just that seeing the headline, "Test results: Carbon capture works at Wisconsin coal plant," gets one thinking that maybe carbon sequestration - - safe burial, if that can be achieved, is looming.

The test showed that carbon can be chemically captured from the smokestack - - but because the test was conducted at a Wisconsin plant that is not near possible sequestration rock formations, the CO2 gas that was captured was then released into the atmosphere!

So CO2 capture works - - until you let it go.

Maybe another utility could have performed the test, and that sequestration could have been attempted at the same time.