American congressional delegation visiting Saskatchewan's carbon capture facility

A U.S. presidential hopeful is in Saskatchewan Wednesday to tour the carbon capture and storage power plant at the Boundary Dam by Estevan.

South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham will meet up with Premier Brad Wall for the tour. Also in the congressional delegation will be Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and South Carolina congressman Tom Rice.

“We think this is a technology the world’s interested in. We’ve seen continued interest in it. This is the latest evidence of that,” said Wall.

First launched last fall, the $1.4 billion facility burns coal and captures 90 per cent of the carbon dioxide emissions, which is then stored several kilometres underground. That’s like taking 250,000 vehicles off the road. Wall said because the stored CO2 has a purity of 99 per cent, it can then be marketed to energy companies to enhance oil recovery.

Wall said coal accounts for about 39 per cent of US electricity, speculating that our southern neighbours are interested in learning how to burn it in a greener fashion.

“In Saskatchewan we have an answer to that. We’ve cleaned it up. At this facility operating right now we have energy being produced from coal three times cleaner than natural gas,” he contended.

“We’re hoping the United States Department of Energy considers coming in as a partner in our consortium. In other words, investing in the knowledge we’ve built.”

He thinks even more international interest in the project will be shown in the months ahead.