As the U.S. Department of Energy's first-of-its-scale project in
carbon burial launches, interest in carbon burial and
sequestration is at an all time high. Many nations wish that
there was an alternative to traditional emissions cuts, which
can hinder growth, and could reduce their net contribution to
atmospheric carbon. Carbon sequestration could provide just such
a solution. By burying the substance in underground cavities or
in carbon rich soils in swamps or other sites, the net
contribution of a country to emissions can be reduced. And while
many in the environmental community no longer like the idea,
pointing out that such deposits could be easily released and
don't solve the overall problem, the movement to adopt carbon
sequestration still has powerful supporters. Drilling began this
week in Illinois on the DoE project, which will bury one million
metric tons of carbon dioxide into the ground by 2012. The
project is the first of its scale in the U.S., and while still
small compared to total U.S. emissi