Andrea Feldpausch-Parker, Ph.D. Texas A&M University CVEEN 7920 and GEOL l 571 November 10, 2010

 Goal of CCS: the capture and safe, long-term storage of CO 2 – climate change mitigation strategy  U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) initiatives  Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships  The Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum  FutureGen Project  Carbon Sequestration Core Program  Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage  Types of CCS  Terrestrial  Geologic

 Proposed mitigation strategy for climate change  New technologies mixed with proven  New risks  Large-scale infrastructure  Significant government involvement FutureGen site in Mattoon, IL

 Ties to the fossil fuel industry  Locations dependent on the geology  Difference in perceptions between CCS strategies  Regional differences in citizen values and experiences

 Inform the public of:  Scientific and technological findings  Advances and uncertainties associated with climate change and its mitigation  Conduit for sharing scientific knowledge  Intermediaries between the public and political and scientific elites

 Frames:  How problems are discovered  How the public interprets problems  Public acceptance or rejection of technologies developed to remediate problems  Determines whether technologies will be a benefit or risk to society  Controls the flow of information and influences political agendas by determining focus and framing of information presented

 Examine news media’s representation of CCS risks and benefits as an emerging low-carbon energy technology by analyzing newspapers from 4 states:  Massachusetts  Minnesota  Montana  Texas

 These 4 states exhibit varying degrees of:  Public acceptance of CCS  Progress toward CCS deployment  Demographics  Energy resources  Electricity production  Carbon storage capacities

MT MN TX MA Population (in millions): 1.0 Population (in millions): 5.3 Population (in millions): 24.8 Population (in millions): 6.6

 This study includes identifying: 1. Frequency of CCS coverage 2. Differences between newspapers based on proximity to energy production and/or political centers 3. What social functions the coverage emphasizes 4. Whether the technology is portrayed as a risk and/or benefit 5. The level of attention given to climate change as a driver for the deployment

 Selected 3 newspapers from each state  Highest circulated newspaper  Newspaper from the state capital or a different geographic region  Newspaper covering area closest to major energy technology activities  Search terms: CCS and variants, carbon capture and variants, carbon storage and variants and/or clean coal  Found in: title and/or lead paragraph of an article

 Frames  Technical  Economic  Environmental  Health & Safety  Political/Legal  Aesthetic  Other  Risks/Benefits

Newspapers included in the news media analysis Newspaper Type MassachusettsMinnesotaMontanaTexas Highest circulation Boston Globe Minneapolis Star Tribune Billings Gazette Houston Chronicle State capital or different region Springfield Republican St. Paul Pioneer Press Missoulian Austin American- Statesman Closest to energy technologies Cape Cod Times Duluth News Tribune Bozeman Daily Chronicle Midland Reporter Telegram

The success of FutureGen in the Permian Basin will not only help meet strict environmental standards through the use of clean coal technology, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the applied technology will capture CO 2 that can be used to produce more Permian Basin oil ("green oil"). It will produce more jobs, generate more State and local revenue and reduce our country's dependence on foreign oil. I like to think of it as the "Greening of the Oil Patch" (Midland Reporter Telegram Staff 2006).

 Media in all states emphasized political/legal, economic and technical social functions  Media gave moderate attention to environmental science and to human health and safety, and minimal attention to aesthetics  Media emphasized benefits, rather than risks associated with CCS, indicating a positive perception toward CCS and its future implementation

 Newspapers closest to CCS projects published more articles than other newspapers  Emphasized benefits more strongly than other newspapers  The connection between climate change and CCS was not uniformly emphasized in news coverage  Stories often mentioned climate change, but tended to emphasize more temporally and spatially immediate benefits

 Science and technology has become part of the public conversation when they encroach on other social functions such as politics and economics  Unlike wind and other renewable energy sources, CCS only makes sense in a world with deep constraints on CO 2 emission  While CCS takes advantage of existing infrastructure, regulations, social norms and legal experience with the fossil fuel industry, integration challenges remain

 With more projects coming on-line, however, it is reasonable to assume that media coverage of CCS activities will continue to increase  The rich resonance between function systems in news coverage highlights the potential for using CCS as a productive social response to climate change