Pirate's Cove

We’re pretty much spending too much on the rest of the BS “solutions”, as well

US leads wealthy countries spending billions of public money on unproven ‘climate solutions’

A handful of wealthy polluting countries led by the US are spending billions of dollars of public money on unproven climate solutions technologies that risk further delaying the transition away from fossil fuels, new analysis suggests.

Sigh. CO2 is not a pollutant

These governments have handed out almost $30bn in subsidies for carbon capture and fossil hydrogen over the past 40 years, with hundreds of billions potentially up for grabs through new incentives, according to a new report by Oil Change International (OCI), a non-profit tracking the cost of fossil fuels.

To date, the European Union (EU) plus just four countries – the US, Norway, Canada and the Netherlands – account for 95% of the public handouts on CCS and hydrogen.

The US has spent the most taxpayer money, some $12bn in direct subsidies, according to OCI, with fossil fuel giants like Exxon hoping to secure billions more in future years.

In fairness, the US has handed out way more than that on “loans” for solar panel companies that went out of business.

But carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects consistently fail, overspend or underperform, according to previous studies. CCS – and blue hydrogen projects – rely on fossil fuels and can lead to a myriad of environmental harms including a rise in greenhouse gases and air pollution.

They’re both BS, but, politicians handing out the taxpayer money receive lots of donations from the business owners.

“The United States and other governments have little to show for these massive investments in carbon capture – none of the demonstration projects have lived up to their initial hype,” said Robert Howarth, professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University. “It is instructive that industry itself invests very little in carbon capture. This whole enterprise is dependent on government handouts.”

Weird, because it’s the same with solar and wind.

“Governments are pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into technologies that have consistently failed to deliver on their promises … allowing fossil fuel companies to continue business,” said Lorne Stockman, research director at OCI.

And that is the climate cultist’s big problem: they want fossil fuels companies gone, not realizing that they will no longer be able to take fossil fueled buses, trains, planes, or boats. No cruises, no popping off to an island for a vacation, no driving down to the store. Oh, and not to mention all the roughly 700 products made with petroleum.