As discussed in our brief on decarbonization, most strategies for reducing CO2 levels in the atmosphere involve switching to power generation and transportation technologies that produce less CO2. An alternate strategy is to extract and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, referred to as sequestration. At first glance, sequestration could be an attractive option for achieving the “net zero” goal, where the total amount of CO2 in the atmosphere would remain constant instead of increasing. Instead of building costly new renewable energy sources, retrofitting buildings, and switching to electric vehicles, sequestration offers a way for society to continue producing and using energy largely as we do now. The primary difference is that we would have to implement enough sequestration measures to offset global CO2 emissions. The question is, is sequestration on the levels required to achieve this outcome even possible? What would it cost?

In the past two decades, U.S. natural gas and oil production has increased to the point that America is now a net exporter of these commodities. This change is due to a new technology, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. How does fracking fit into the debate over climate change?

Production and use of electric vehicles (EVs) has increased dramatically over the last decade. In addition to an increase in overall popularity, this trend is also due to government incentives to drive costs down for both manufacturers and consumers. A widespread move to EVs could help address climate change because actual driving of EVs does not produce greenhouse gasses like traditional gas and diesel vehicles. However, while internal combustion engines have around 200 parts that need to be maintained and possibly repaired as compared to EVs which utilize only around 20 parts, current EVs have unique environmental problems related to sourcing, disposal and other aspects of these parts, and require nationwide installation of appropriate charging infrastructure and a significant increase in demand of the power grid. So, do these problems outweigh the benefits of a transition to EVs? Note: this brief is a general introduction to the issues surrounding EV infrastructure. For our analysis of how many EV charging stations are needed and where they would be located, see https://tinyurl.com/28fcn2ts.