The recent Russian Invasion of the Ukraine has created the greatest demand for fossil fuels in more than 20 years. Not for nothing, is it called a “Fossil Fuel War”. The current world use of oil is estimated at 100 million barrels per day and rising. The price of gas has gone up 50% since a year ago and because of the decision to cut off the importation of Russian oil may go even higher. Jennifer Granholm, the US Secretary of Energy said the US is on a “war footing”, and has called American oil and gas producers to produce more fuel. Despite great efforts to encourage renewable energy technology by the Biden Administration , gas prices are at record highs. The US government is currently negotiating with Saudi Arabia and Venezuela to import more oil, to make up for the ban on Russian oil imports. At the moment Russia, Iran and other other oil producers benefit from high fuel prices.

So what has this have to do with Carbon Capture? Everything! There seems no other way at present to reach the goal of the world significantly reducing the carbon dioxide in the air by 2050 through international agreements on the reduction of fossil fuel use if the world is a war and some countries depend on high oil prices to benefit their economies. In addition its not likely with surging demand for fuels in the post pandemic period, that there is a workable alternative plan to remove large amounts of carbon out of the atmosphere. Carbon Capture which involves taking carbon dioxide out of the air, turning it into stone and putting it in the ground has its skeptics. But there seem to be few other good choices. The world finds itself in a dilemma.

The Guardian quoted Jonathan Elkind, an energy expert at Columbia University and a former energy adviser to Barack Obama’s administration saying this. “It’s an undeniable reality that Russia gets a significant share of its revenues from oil and gas and that America’s gasoline habit contributes towards the global demand for 100m barrels of oil each day.

“Do we want to find ourselves 10 years from now where we’ve bent the curve on oil consumption and emissions towards decarbonization, or do we want to sit there and think ‘where did the last 10 years go?’ If the US isn’t a part of the solution we will put in peril our influence on the world stage and the fate of everyone, both here and around the globe.”

On April 28 RENEW REBUILD HAWAII will sponsor our next ZOOM forum on Carbon Capture with experts from around the world.