Did you notice the cost-to-taxpayer implications of the “Carbon capture the future of coal?” and the “Another carbon capture project planned by Va. Tech, Dominion Power” articles in the Oct. 31 issue of the Bristol Herald Courier? While praising the carbon dioxide capture demonstration facility at AEP’s Mountaineer Power Plant as “stunning,” the articles failed to emphasize the stunning cost implications for you and me revealed by these two articles.
The demonstration facility cost $137 million to treat the gas generated by 20 megawatts of the 1,300 megawatt power plant’s capacity. Scaling that cost up to treat all the gas generated by the plant would total a little over $8.9 billion (1,300/20 x $137 million). Since there are more than 600 coal-fired power plants in the United States, it would cost us taxpayers over $5.3 trillion to retrofit all the coal-fired plants. And this does not include additional research and development costs or the increases in our electric bills to run and maintain the carbon dioxide capture facilities, nor the cost to store the captured carbon dioxide deep in the bowels of the earth.
The second article also stated that the earth may not sufficiently seal away the captured carbon dioxide so “continuous monitoring” of the stored gas would be required; another project to be funded by you and me through taxes and increased electric bills. The articles also list numerous impending carbon capture projects totaling some $30 billion awaiting federal funding.
All this and it’s getting colder; not warmer! How can we be so gullible and easily frightened into allowing our government to spend our tax dollars on such nonsense?
Dick Hollars
Glade Spring, Va.
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