Research Highlights
April 2008
James Dooley gives Capitol Hill briefing
Technologies for capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions hold tremendous promise for addressing climate change, but much work remains to ensure timely, cost-effective deployment in key markets such as the electric power industry. These were some of the key points James Dooley made at a Senate briefing in March, where legislators and other stakeholders explored the business and policy aspects of commercially deploying carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies. CCS is an emerging suite of science and technologies designed to capture carbon dioxide from power plants and store it underground, preventing greenhouse gases from reaching the atmosphere.
Dooley spoke on a panel about issues surrounding large-scale CCS deployment. Dooley, a scientist with the Atmospheric Science and Global Change Division and the Joint Global Change Research Institute, is an international expert on the role of carbon capture and storage in addressing climate change. He spoke about the marketplace for CCS, geologic storage capacity worldwide, and the potential for large-scale CCS deployment in the United States.
The March 31 briefing, "The Business Case for Carbon Capture and Sequestration," was sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in partnership with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the British Foreign Office, and the Mission of the United States of America to the European Union. The event was convened to shed light on business, economic, and policy considerations important to the future role of CCS. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, opened the briefing, followed by speakers from the business and science communities. Dooley's presentation and those of the other panelists are online.
Dooley served as Lead Author and Cross-Cutting Chairman for a recent assessment of CCS for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel Peace Prize last year. For the Global Energy Technology Strategy Program, he co-authored a number of landmark reports addressing CCS and other climate change mitigation technologies.