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Carbon Capture Policy Option Reduces Conservative Support Renewables, Study Finds [1]

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Date: 2023-01-17  

When it comes to the climate crisis, we can’t afford to lose any time ramping up renewable energy, which is still our only viable option for slashing emissions quickly enough to meet international climate goals.

However, many people still claim that a varied buffet of other energy solutions could better tackle the climate crisis. It’s always good to have a plan B, right? Well, maybe not, when it turns out that the fossil fuel industry is pushing plan B specifically to undermine plan A.

In this case, plan A is renewable energy, and plan B consists of largely unproven technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS) (and even riskier geoengineering schemes ).

In recent years, fossil fuel companies have increasingly publicized their CCS endeavors in order to greenwash their reputations, and conservative politicians have proposed CCS legislation as an alternative to supporting renewables.

Investments in CCS research might seem innocent or even prudent, and in an honest world, that would likely be the case. But in a world of well-funded climate denial and disinformation, ulterior motives are at play. Sociologists Thomas Marlow and Kinga Makovi, authors of a new study , explain that “as outright denial has become increasingly untenable in the face of frequent climate disasters, economic realities, and legal liabilities, fossil fuel companies and their networks of supporting organizations have piloted towards a politics of delay.”

What this means is that no, the fossil fuel industry isn’t coming around to the good side and genuinely using CCS to make up for the harm it has caused. Instead, the industry is merely trying to delay meaningful climate policies, including those that support renewable energy, in order to maintain its power and its profits.

Let us explain. The idea of sucking carbon out of the atmosphere and storing it back in the ground might seem like a good one, and indeed, it's something we'll absolutely need to figure out eventually. But before we can make any headway in removing carbon from the atmosphere, we first need to stop burning fossil fuels that put carbon emissions there in the first place. However, Marlow and Makovi warn, “Studies on the effectiveness of CCS are sparse, with some indicating that current projects are under 50% effective and the increase in air pollution they would bring about may be even worse than doing nothing at all. Additionally, the risks of committing to pathways reliant on unproven CCS technologies are skewed towards more vulnerable populations.” Therefore, banking on CCS technology maturing and being scaled up before the global average temperature warms by 1.5 degrees or more, while simultaneously introducing no other changes in the energy economy, is a recipe for disaster.

So, as it stands now, CCS isn't even really that good for the climate. But it is good for something, Marlow and Makovi found: "Among conservatives, the presence of a CCS policy lowers support for renewable energy.”

Marlow’s and Makovi’s study asked 2,374 liberal and conservative respondents “about their support for a renewable energy policy when presented with the renewable energy policy alone, and when presented alongside a CCS policy.” While liberals were unaffected by exposures to the CCS option, conservatives apparently interpreted it as a reason not to support renewables.

The CCS policy in question was adapted from an ExxonMobil press release promoting CCS, so while ExxonMobil might not have been trying to undercut renewables, that's definitely what it's doing in practice.

The study continues, “Furthermore, despite the lack of apparent political party cues, when presented with the policy-pair, conservatives tend to view the renewable energy policy in more partisan terms, specifically, less supported by Republicans.” This is no surprise, given that Koch - funded disinfluencers continue to flood conservative media with anti-solar and wind energy propaganda .

The findings of this study confirm what we already feared: “a delaying strategy of promoting non-transformative climate change policies might effectively undermine public support for renewable energy.” In other words, fossil fuel companies promote carbon capture as another delay tactic in order to obstruct meaningful climate policies.

However, the study does give one reason for hope. “Both conservatives and liberals thought that fewer Republicans would support renewable energy than was observed; suggesting that policies to promote renewable energy are more popular across the ideological spectrum than is commonly believed.”

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/17/2147645/-Carbon-Capture-Policy-Option-Reduces-Conservative-Support-Renewables-Study-Finds

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