Canada offers $140 million to carbon capture projects

CALGARY, ALBERTA - Eight carbon capture and storage projects in Western Canada will share $140-million in funding from the Canadian government, Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt said.

The projects, whose backers include TransCanada Corp, Spectra Energy, TransAlta Corp, Husky Energy Inc, Enbridge Inc and others, will cut emissions of carbon dioxide from electricity and oil and gas production. The eight proposals are early stage projects that will reduce emissions into the atmosphere and store the carbon dioxide underground or put it to use in other industries.

"CanadaÂ’s tremendous reserves of energy will remain an important source of economic strength for a long time to come," Ms. Raitt said in a statement. "The major challenge we face today comes from identifying and implementing cleaner ways to produce and consume that energy."

CanadaÂ’s minority Conservative government is looking to burnish the countryÂ’s environmental record as it seeks an accord on greenhouse gas reduction measures with the Obama administration in the United States.

The governmentÂ’s funding is part of a $230-million set aside in 2007 to develop technologies that cut emissions from energy production. Canada is offering the projects between $3-million and $30-million each in funding.