1) Assuming 90% removal efficiency, CCS for all coal-fired plants would remove about 1.7 billion metric tons of CO2 every year.

2) The cost per metric ton of CO2 would therefore be about $71.

3) In 10 years, the cost would be $1.2 trillion, and 17 billion metric tons of CO2 would have been removed.

4) Assuming that doubling CO2 from 380 to 760 ppm raises the global temperature by 2.5 degrees Celsius (i.e., a climate sensitivity of 2.5 degrees Celsius), and given that 1 ppm is about 2.1 GtC…

5) The 17 billion metric tons of CO2 would be 17 times 12/44 = 4.6 GtC.

6) That would be about 4.6/2.1 = 2.2 ppm of CO2.

7) So that $1.2 trillion dollars would buy a reduction in temperature of 2.2 ppm/380 ppm times 2.5 degrees Celsius = 0.014 degrees Celsius temperature reduction.

So…why not simply pile the $1.2 trillion in a big pile of bills and set fire to it? At least it would be a swell bonfire.

1) Coal generates approximately 2 trillion kilowatt hours per year in the U.S.

2) The average price of electricity from coal is probably about 7 cents a kilowatt hour. So that’s about $140 billion a year.

3) If CCS adds about 6 cents a kilowatt hour, that would be about $120 billion a year more in electricity costs to do CCS for all coal-fired plants.

4) That’s about $390 a year for every man, woman, and child in the U.S.

That’s a lot of money.

And…

“When asked about costs, he said that the cost is a ‘non issue’ (though he said that his response was a bit flippant).”

“A bit flippant”? As they would say on The West Wing, “Ya think?!”

A cost addition of 6 cents per kilowatt hour to coal-fired power would be huge. That would essentially double the cost…or even more (assuming he’s talking about the cost to produce electricity with coal increasing by 6 cents per kWh).

Wonderful Wikipedia says that a pulverized coal plant without CCS costs 4-5 cents/kWh, and a pulverized coal plant with CCS and geological “storage” (really disposal!) costs 6-10 cents/kWh. So Wikipedia doesn’t necessarily have the same absolute cost increase value…but it’s definitely a substantial increase.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_capture_and_storage