This week’s episode of coal-to-liquids watch involves Shell and Anglo American Plc., which were planning a coal-to-liquids plant in Australia, incorporating carbon capture. Now? Not so much, says Bloomberg:
Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Anglo American Plc have delayed plans to develop a A$5 billion ($3.2 billion) project in Australia to convert coal into clean fuels, citing higher costs.
(Note that the whole “clean fuels” meme is Bloomberg’s, not mine. But the partners were developing technology to capture at least some of the carbon during the manufacturing process, which, in global warming terms, is better than having a lit cigar stuck up your nose.)
As Eli has said N+1 times, developing technology like this depends on putting a floor on the price of fossil fuels either with emissions caps/trade or by taxation. With the fall in oil prices and the associated fall in the price of other fossil fuels why are you surprised by this?