Environmental Research Foundation, July 9, 2009

SOME BIG GREEN GROUPS PROMOTE RAPID DEPLOYMENT OF CCS

By Peter Montague

In recent years, Clean Air Task Force (CATF) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have both received major funding from the Joyce Foundation in Chicago and from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in New York to promote coal plants outfitted with an end-of-pipe filter called "carbon capture and sequestration," or CCS for short.

CCS is a plan to capture carbon dioxide from coal power plants, compress it into a liquid, pipe it to a suitable location, and pump it about a mile below ground, hoping it will stay there forever.

The Joyce Foundation is committed to promoting CCS as a way of helping the MidWest coal industry survive. The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation distributes funds that Doris Duke inherited from her father, who in 1905 founded Duke Power (now Duke Energy), which is still a major operator of coal-fired power plants.

Clean Air Task Force (CATF) received an $845,000 grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in 2008 to promote CCS; and a grant of $787,500 from the Joyce Foundation in August, 2006 to promote CCS, for a total of $1.6 million to promote CCS.

Natural Resource Defense Council (NRDC) received a grant of $437,500 in 2006 from the Joyce Foundation to promote CCS, and a $750,000 grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in 2008 to study ways to use money raised by a carbon cap-and-trade program to promote "clean energy." The Doris Duke Foundation uses the euphemism "clean energy" to mean coal plants with CCS. For example, see here and here.

CATF and NRDC both advocate rapid deployment of CCS

To learn NRDC's position on carbon sequestration, see

1. NRDC: Return carbon to the ground

2. NRDC: There's a way to burn the stuff and not toast the planet

3. NRDC: How to Clean Coal

4. NRDC: Response to M.I.T.

5. NRDC: Carbon Capture and Sequestration: An Overview

6. NRDC: CO2 Capture and Storage: Just Do It!

To learn CATF's position on carbon sequestration, see:

1. CATF: Taming Coal

and:

2. CATF: Response to M.I.T.

and:

3. CATF: Carbon Capture and Sequestration: A Literature Review