In connection with the presentation of the annual national budget, the
government says that CO2-capture at Kårstø must be compared with other
climate change measures in the government's forthcoming climate plan.
The plan will be published next fall, with the political treatment
expected in spring 2012.
The government promised in its
policy platform to clean the gas-fired power plant by 2009. This promise
is not fulfilled. The gas plant and gas terminal emits more greenhouse
gases in total, than any other greenhouse gas source in Norway.
With
the new schedule, the government is currently about to loose time to
initiate construction at Kårstø within this election period. Important
further technical and commercial work with CO2 capture is on hold, and
need a decision from the government to continue. In the budget there is
no money earmarked for the plant. If further work on Kårstø remains on
the desk of energy minister Riis-Johansen, till after the treatment of
the climate plan (2012), the time runs out for him to get the needed
investment decision and budget allocation for construction. The last
budget the government will put forward in this election period is in
October 2012.
In May this year the government postponed the
purification of gas-fired power plant at Mongstad from 2014 to 2018. The
investment decision for the treatment plant will be made in 2014. In
other words: this will also happen in the next parliamentary period.
Whether the government that sits in 2014 will decide to build a
treatment plant at Mongstad, no one of the present coalition government
can guarantee.
The results of the postponement of investment
decisions both at Kårstø and Mongstad, is that the government has given
up power to ensure CCS on the gas power plants in Norway during their
period.
The only option the government now has to fulfill some of
its promises on carbon capture and storage, in their 8 years in power,
is that they set aside money for Kårstø in the state budget.
