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SW: →Canada policies and programs: - add section
On June 24, 2011, the province of Alberta said it would provide C$745 million to test [[carbon capture and sequestration]] technology on [[Royal Dutch Shell]]'s Scotford Upgrader, which is similar to a refinery for processing heavy oil. The Canadian government will chip in an additional C$120 million, making the project one of the most expensive attempts to control carbon dioxide output from Alberta's oil sands region.
The deal is the first test of whether greenhouse gas output from upgraders can be controlled, according to Shell. Upgraders pump hydrogen and particles of a catalyst down into a well while simultaneously heating the oil sands, breaking the long chain hydrocarbons in the bitumen into smaller molecules that flow better and are easier to pump and store. The proposed CCS project -- which will receive the money over a 15-year time span -- would inject 1 million metric tons of C02 underground in saline rock formations. The injections would start in 2015.
Environmental groups say the CCS proposal actually would raise Alberta's emissions over time, since the province simultaneously changed the way companies can receive [[carbon offset]] credits under a provincial greenhouse gas law, allowing companies to receive double the credit to reduce overall emissions for every metric ton of pollution reduced via CCS projects that "store carbon dioxide permanently." That means companies will be able to avoid more emissions at their own facilities simply by counting CCS as a "double" offset under provincial law.<ref>Christa Marshall, [http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=canada-makes-bet-on-carbon-capture-squestration "Canada Makes Big Bet on Carbon Capture and Sequestration"] Scientific American, June 27, 2011.</ref>
