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by CyanLite4 950 days ago
Did it cost more in carbon just for the construction workers to drive their pickup trucks to build this plant than what the plant will actually remove?
2 comments

I'd like to know this too, the article only let me read two paragraphs.

I found a NASA stat that an US average car will emit a metric ton of CO2 in 3 months of use.

"The U.S. EPA has found that a typical 22 MPG gas-based car emits about 5 tons of carbon dioxide per year. On average, you emit one ton of CO2 for about every 2,500 miles you drive".

CarbonCure(the partner of Heirloom here) agrees with me on the math: "CarbonCure’s global network of concrete producer partners has produced more than five million truckloads of carbon mineralized concrete, removing and reducing more than 365,000 metric tons of CO2. That’s equivalent to taking more than 80,000 gas-powered cars off the road for a year."

So this 1000 metric ton CO2 DAC plant could offset the activities of 100-400 vehicles in a year... minus the activities of the employees to get to the plant. That's what I wanna know. When are the workers going to stop driving 60 miles round trip to work? And how many need to be at work everyday at the plant?

I guess at least California is pushing electric cars.

Indeed, automation is not just about eliminating the payment of wages, it's also about removing the need to burn dinosaurs shuttling hoominz around.

How 'bout if workers at carbon capture facilities are prohibited from driving fossil-fueled cars to work. Maybe they could get e-bikes as a job perk ? It would be on-brand.

Or electric shuttle that would pick them up. And/or company could build cheap/free housing for employees nearby. So many good logical solutions!
How is that logical? You want a nascent carbon capture startup to also build employee housing and/or operate a bus line. That sounds like a great waste of money and resources.

They are working on one part of the problem, carbon capture. Many others are working on the problems of electric vehicles and green electricity production.

Maybe California is running the bus line that services hundreds of these factories along Highway 58.
> So this 1000 metric ton CO2 DAC plant could offset the activities of 100-400 vehicles in a year

So it's basically useless? Just for show? Surely you could have done much more for the environment investing that money in a smarter way?

Or it's a stepping stone in design that shows a technology can function. Future designs could be more efficient.
Solar panels required people be clothed, fed, and transported in excess carbon emissions than the first 10,000 reduced.