Funding for research and development of carbon capture technologies is most welcome, and Musk’s donation will surely lead to technological advances in the space. The difficulty with carbon capture is that few people want CO 2 , with the predominant usage today in enhanced oil recovery. The LCFS program has limited scope and jurisdiction, and its market would be quickly overwhelmed if carbon capture reaches scale. So too is carbon capture ready to make such a jump. Instead, carbon capture is ready for its Wall Street moment: it will take the deployment of today’s technologies within today’s regulatory regime, supported by billions from governments, banks, and corporations, to demonstrate the business case for carbon capture and truly enable the space to scale.

Source: Forbes January 24, 2021 13:07 UTC