DOE goes cave hunting to pump carbon underground

"The U.S. Department of Energy awarded $126.6 million in grants on Tuesday to test carbon capture and storage in underground caverns.

Two sites in Ohio and California will try to verify that carbon dioxide gas can be pumped in geological formations and stored safely. The CO2 will be delivered from an ethanol plant in Ohio and a power plant in California.

The grants are subject to approval from Congress. When private money is included, the amount spent on the projects will be about $180 million over ten years, the DOE said.

The Bush Administration and many other energy experts consider carbon capture and storage an important tool in reducing greenhouse gases emissions in the atmosphere.

The DOE has identified enough underground "sinks" to store 1,000 years of storage capacity. Pumping CO2 can also aid in extraction more from oil and gas wells."

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