Comments on: DOE goes cave hunting to pump carbon underground

The U.S. is sitting on huge "sinks" that can store carbon dioxide in geological formations. Two projects get funding to measure the safety and cost effectiveness of carbon storage.

[gdmaclew]

Why would you want to do that?
Human induced Global Warming is a hoax.

[stlwest]

There are gas to liquids processes that can use the high c02 concentrations to make fuel. There was a professor on Invention Nation who had a local brewery piping over cO2 from fermentation to his lab to do just this, why not use the same process with exhaust from the coal plants? If you are gonna pump something underground it might as well be pressurized air to allow renewable energy sources to create power when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing CAES.

[aka_tripleB]

This is a horrible idea. It is quite literally "sweeping the problem under the 'rug.'" The government should require companies to plant vegitation to cover their emmisions. That would actually be a solution to the problem, not just pushing the problem to someone else.

[zeroplane]

I can see it now, government pumps hundreds of millions of gallons of Liquid CO2 into the ground. Then flash forward 15 to 25 years and a rouge research group introduces self-aware nano bots into the mix. Suddenly the liquid CO2 is transformed into what might mistakenly be a natural alternative to yogurt; lets call the foreign substance "stuff". Next thing you know it is being sold throughout the country, then the world!..

Then slowly over months reports will come in with people exhibiting strange behavior.. It will be the warning signs of the end.

You have been warned! ;P

[TV James]

Or some terrorist group figures out how to make it explosive and blows up the country. What a bizarre idea. Next we'll learn the caverns are underneath Indian Reservations.

All those futuristic shows where city blocks are floating in space with chunks of dirt underneath - that's from when the CO2 explodes. Makes for a nice still life. What happens later when it comes plummeting back to earth.. not so funny.

[nextcube]

Greenpeace is skecptial of anything that doesn't involve sending the common man back to the stone age. That said, even a stopped clock is right twice a day. Spend this money on something useful...or better yet, just don't spend it at all.

[WulfTheSaxon]

I'm just worried what will happen if/when there's an earthquake/bombing which causes a major outgassing like what happened at Lake Nyos back in 1986, suffocating hundreds of people: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos

[nkycarbon]

"After reviewing dozens of constructive comments on our restructured
approach to FutureGen, we are pleased today to issue a draft
solicitation as we take steps to demonstrate the commercial
potential of cutting-edge carbon sequestration technology," Under
Secretary of Energy Bud Albright said. "Each of these plants will
sequester at least one million metric tons of carbon dioxide
annually and will help meet our nation's rapidly growing demand for
energy using our most abundant energy resource in an environmentally
responsible way."

http://www.energy.gov/print/6233.htm DOE May 7, 2008

Not sure if Bud mispoke or was misquoted. To get to 600 billion
tons with the two tests sites will take 600,000 years. That said
even at a million a year each site represents over 1% of US annual
emissions. I'd like to see some details on that estimate before I
buy into it.