Howard Herzog, the carbonizer
I talked with Howard Herzog about the prospects of carbon sequestration, burying carbon dioxide in what amount to carbon landfills. He’s one of many people who are excited by this idea as part of the answer to global warming.
It was clear from talking to him that beating global warming does not mesh well with the short-term perspective we have in our market economy. Herzog wants a billion dollars for research into carbon sequestration, “so in the 2020s and 2030s carbon sequestration can start being a major player, along with some other technologies.”
Nor does it proffer ‘the answer’ for global warming. Said Herzog:
No technology’s going to do everything for you. The more options you have for your portfolio, the better you’ll do. So we feel that there hasn’t been enough R&D money to go around for all the technologies. The case that I would make for carbon capture and storage is the United States has a lot of coal and carbon capture and storage is a way for us to use this coal cleanly as opposed to letting it sit in the ground.
Here’s the Q&A as I submitted it to Shukan Daiyamondo. It was published in the November 17 issue.