Former Syncrude president to head carbon-capture council
Last Updated: Thursday, April 24, 2008 | 2:02 PM ET
CBC News
A day after striking a panel to develop a provincial nuclear policy, Alberta named a council Thursday to work out a roadmap for implementing carbon capture and storage.
Heading the council is Jim Carter, the former president of Syncrude. Under his leadership, the energy company made significant advances in productivity and environmental performance, Alberta Energy said in a news release.
"Jim Carter's experience in successfully managing complex industrial sites will be crucial in helping us build a practical plan for putting this technology in place," said Energy Minister Mel Knight.
The council also includes eight representatives from the oil and gas sector, five members from the provincial and federal governments, and a business professor from the University of Alberta.
The council, which will report back to the province this fall, has also been asked to respond to recommendations made earlier this year by a federal-provincial task force on carbon capture and storage.
The task force called on the federal and provincial governments to provide $2 billion in funding to get five new carbon capture and storage facilities operating by 2015.
The technology itself involves capturing gaseous carbon dioxide from industrial sources, transferring them by pipeline, and then injecting them into the ground for storage, rather than into the atmosphere.
Alberta's climate change strategy commits to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 200 megatonnes by 2050, a large part of that through carbon capture and storage.
