In this episode, we talk about about a carbon capture and storage initiative by the oil sands companies, called “The Pathways Alliance”. A group of companies have banded together to develop carbon capture and storage systems, as part of their march towards net-zero emissions from their operations.
The key word here is ”operations”. They are not attempting to make their fossil fuel products net-zero when they are burned by customers. Burning would seem to be the entire point of fuel.
Some might call this whole project greenwashing, but I take a more balanced point of view. They are certainly putting a lot of money and effort into developing carbon capture and storage systems, and the knowledge and skills acquired will be in big demand in the future, especially if we need to go past net-zero, and be carbon negative
Of course, this is all counter-intuitive, because the least carbon intensive use of any oil or coal is to leave it exactly where it is.