Editor’s Note: As part of the Coalblog’s continuing commitment to bringing you new and innovative editorial and ideas, I have invited Walter James O’Brien to expand on his recent American Coal magazine article, “Carbon Compliance Using the Carnegie Model.” In this short update, O’Brien considers how the coal industry can use CO2 to promote industrial development. Please feel free to comment and suggest other means of making CO2 pay.

Scientists at Industrial Technologies describe how they are building “industrial blood” as a means of capturing CO₂ from flue gas. They are developing a system that mimics the ability of blood to remove CO₂ from the body using carbolic anhydrase to create bicarbonate ions, which are then released from the lungs using a reaction (involving zinc, amino acids, and hydroxyl ion).

This Heritage Foundation study argues that the move to create legislative and regulatory ‘fixes’ on the issue of CO₂ will do more economic, social, and environmental damage than good.