Evidence of meeting #14 for Finance in the 43rd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was companies.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
We'll have to end it there, Pierre. We're out of time.
Go ahead, Mr. McLeod.
March 12th, 2020 / 5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you to everybody who presented here.
I have a quick question on the issue of setting up a plant in Texas. You said the policies in Texas were better than what was happening here in Canada. Could you explain why or what you mean by that?
5:20 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Carbon Engineering Ltd.
In the U.S. you have a policy that differentiates between carbon capture, for example, from a flue stack, which is cheaper to achieve, and carbon capture from the atmosphere.
The U.S., and the states of California and Oregon in particular, have differentiated between carbon capture from the atmosphere, which is ultimately what everybody is going to have to do to achieve net zero, and carbon capture from flue stacks. That allows our business, which has a higher cost because capturing from the atmosphere is hard, to go ahead.
We're seeing policies starting to come up in Canada. We're doing a lot of work with the Canadian government on policies around climate change. We hope to see the same policies in Canada and we'll build plants here too.
5:20 p.m.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
I'm the member of Parliament for Northwest Territories, and in the north we know there's incredible potential for clean air innovation. We need it to improve our economy and our environment. We also know that the much-needed transition away from diesel towards clean, renewable energy will not happen without federal investment.
Last year our government announced $2 million in support for an exciting UBC research project on carbon capture in mine waste. It included field trials at the Gahcho Kué mine in the Northwest Territories. These trials will allow for testing of new technologies that could result in the world's first greenhouse gas-neutral mine.
Could you speak to the scalability of your company's technology and especially if it would help serve the energy needs of the far north?
5:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Carbon Engineering Ltd.
It's a long answer. I'll try to be as brief as I can.
We've built our technology on pieces of equipment that are widely used in other industries, so that makes it relatively straightforward for us to expand in scale, because we're buying equipment that already exists in other industries.
In terms of impact on dealing with transportation fuels and those types of things like diesel, as you mentioned, we make a synthetic fuel as well. We combine CO2 from the atmosphere with hydrogen and make a clean synthetic fuel that can replace diesel but have no sulphur and no black smoke at the same time.
We see that as part of the evolution of our business, and the Canadian fuel standard that's being worked on right now will hopefully help us get there.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
Michael McLeod Liberal Northwest Territories, NT
I wanted to ask you a question on the fuel that you produce. I'm very curious, because all kinds of new technology has come out and different kinds of fuels and mixtures are being tried. Almost none of them work in the north. I wonder if what you're talking about would be able to work in cold weather.
5:25 p.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Carbon Engineering Ltd.
Certainly the fuel will. It's chemically identical to regular hydrocarbons, so yes, it will work in regular vehicles.
5:25 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
With that, we will have to end this panel. I think we had a very interesting couple of hours.
I want to thank all the panellists, including those who are constructively critical on past and present government policy, because I don't think you can move ahead unless you recognize you have a problem in some areas.
It's really kind of exciting to hear some of these new ideas and possibilities that are coming out because of government support. I think we've had the full meal deal, if I could put it that way.
With that, thank you very much again.
The meeting is adjourned.