Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is a chemical compound made of one carbon and two oxygen atoms. CO2 plays a crucial role in the life cycle on earth. The carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere serves as food for plant life, which convert it to oxygen during the process of photosynthesis. The gas is released into the atmosphere through animal respiration, geological activity such as volcanoes, and industrial emissions. It is consumed by plants and absorbed into the world’s oceans. Together, our oceans contain about 50 times as much CO2 as the atmosphere.
Carbon dioxide is considered a greenhouse gas, and though there are no federal limits on the amount of CO2 produced, legislation is now being considered to place caps on those emissions. These limits would affect all power plants, including those that burn coal. Next-generation clean coal technology would be able to “capture” this CO2, and either store it or use it for commercial applications. One of the commercial applications already in use in Texas is Enhanced Oil Recovery, or EOR. Using this process, carbon dioxide is pumped into oil wells to help recover the “heavy” crude oil that would otherwise be trapped underground. Texas is also ideal for long-term storage, or sequestration. If carbon is taxed, Texas would become a prime candidate for sequestration CO2 from other states.
