Carbon Capture?

Lately we have started hearing more about another acronym - CCUS, Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage. Who is it for? It’s another proposed tax break for hard to decarbonize sectors, especially oil and gas. What is it for? Like SMRs it is for technologies that are expensive, still in early development, and largely unproven. Why is Ottawa listening? Because it gives politicians another out. Another way of wringing their hands and saying “We tried, we tried!” while keeping their fossil fuel buddies in the game for a few more quarters.


A new federal budget is coming and many politicians would like to use CCUS in their upcoming stump speeches. They want an easy out while knowing full well that CCUS or SMR technologies are years and years down the road. When you listen to these speeches be sure to ask “Yes, but what are we going to do about climate change now?” Why aren’t we talking about conservation and green energy starting tomorrow? Not ten or twenty years down the road.


The Ontario NDPs Green New Deal gets it right. Energy efficiency and conservation are the routes to follow. The Federal NDP’s commitments also look to efficiency and sustainability first. A clean energy economy means jobs for families today and tomorrow using existing and well understood technologies that are ready now.

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