Federal and provincial politicians and the oil industry all sang from the same song sheet this week in a chorus of praise for carbon capture.

A joint press conference with the premier of Alberta, federal and provincial energy and environment ministers and industrial partners celebrated a milestone in carbon-capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) as the Enhance Energy's Alberta Carbon Trunk Line stored its millionth tonne of carbon.

The technology pulls carbon-dioxide emissions from industrial sources and stores them deep underground so they can't escape into the atmosphere to create climate change.

What a great idea.  The nascent industry will create engineering and drilling jobs while allowing Canada to meet its carbon reduction goals.  We'll be able to have our cake, eat it and never gain a pound.

But there's a hitch of course.  Carbon capture is a partial fix that doesn't address the root cause of the issue: an economy dependent on high carbon fossil fuels.

And this technology is still pretty expensive so expensive industry isn't willing to do it without some kind of government incentive.

Some propose that incentive could be an effective carbon tax if emitting carbon becomes too pricey, business will kickstart innovation to stop emitting carbon.

Some, and Kenney is in this camp, say a carrot approach, with government spending or tax credits would be preferable.

Kenney is, in fact, urging the federal government to put $30 billion into spurring investment in large carbon capture projects.

Given how much money the oil industry contributes to the economy, and the jobs which will be saved and created, that $30 billion commitment would be a "no-brainer", says the premier.

Kenney is the guy who just lost more than $1 billion on the doomed Keystone Pipeline, so his assessment of what a "no-brainer" risk is might be a tad suspect.

The Alberta government is not relying entirely on the federal government.  It is anteing up some of its own cash for this technology $73-million in 2021-22 budget will go for programs to attract carbon-capture investment.  That money is an ongoing commitment, hitting $224 million in 2023-24.

Alberta and Ottawa have been plowing money into carbon capture since 2009.  The Quest facility, a carbon capture project attached to Shell's Scotford Refinery in Fort Saskatchewan, received $865-million from federal and provincial governments to help pay for construction.

Quest yanks just over one million tonnes of carbon out of the upgrader's stacks per year.  That's 35 per cent of what's produced.

The federal ministers at the carbon capture press conference wouldn't bite when asked if Ottawa will commit to spend $30 billion on the technology.

But both levels of government are creating a taskforce at the deputy minister level to find ways to promote carbon capture.

"This is exactly the right direction we should be heading," says federal Energy Minister Seamus O'Regan.

Federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson did offer a caveat.  "Technology is not a silver bullet, nor is it in and of itself a climate plan," he said.

Unfortunately it appears the Alberta government thinks it is a silver bullet.

At the media conference, the Alberta premier and his ministers concentrated on the energy industry's crucial position in Canada's economy and all the wonderful jobs that carbon capture in itself will create.  The necessity to transition away from carbon-emitting fossil fuels and industries didn't get any play in their scenario.

The oil and gas industry is of course quite happy to continue down a path that provides it with government subsidies to deploy a technology that basically allows it to continue doing business.

Carbon capture can contribute to reducing emissions in the short term as Canada works on the longer term solution of winding down the oil and gas sector.  But putting enormous public investment into it without a meaningful plan for the longer term goal feels like putting a huge bet on the wrong horse.

Photo Credit: Frost & Sullivan