Toronto, Canada - The government of Ontario is now allowing underground carbon capture, hoping to trap and store greenhouse gas emissions as a way of fighting climate change.
Doug Ford’s government repealed Ontario's previous ban on injecting carbon dioxide underground and is now proposing rules for carbon capture pilot projects. The process captures industrial emissions of CO2, compresses them into liquid, and then stores them deep into the earth, which cancels their release into the atmosphere. Alberta and Saskatchewan are already leaders on carbon capture in Canada, capturing more than three megatonnes of CO2 last year.
The companies and business lobby groups encouraged the Ford government to start carbon capture in Ontario. Steel mills, cement makers, gas-fired power plants, and refineries are Ontario’s biggest-emitting candidates for using carbon capture. Although carbon capture has been advocated by the oil and gas sector as a way to neutralize emissions, the price tag can be hefty. Canada’s biggest question will be where to store the captured CO2; the two likely candidates are disused oil and gas wells in southwestern Ontario and saline aquifers. Keith Brooks, Programs Director with advocacy group Environmental Defense, opposes the use of carbon capture to offset emissions from the use of fossil fuels.
Source: cbc.ca