Sask. government says too soon to abandon carbon capture projects

Despite the high cost of producing electricity at Boundary Dam nearEstevan, the government of Saskatchewan saysit is not ready to give up on the idea offurther carbon capture projects.

On Friday, SaskPower's president MikeMarsh said the company would be "highly unlikely" to recommend further units at Boundary Dam be retrofitted to capture carbon emissions.

Marsh said the price ofelectricity generated via carbon capture was twice that of natural gas.

On Monday during question period, the NDP's Cathy Sproulesaid the minister should cut the government'slossesand kill any future carbon capture projects.

"How many more hundreds of millions of dollars will he make Saskatchewan people pay for the Sask. Party's CCS experiment?" she said.

The minister responsible for SaskPower, Dustin Duncan,said it waspremature to say whether carbon capture projects will be recommended by SaskPower in the future, never mind what the government might do with such a recommendation.

Duncan said there aremany other factors to consider besides the price of the power.

"The ability to sell carbon for enhanced oil recovery. The incremental additional royalties that'll be paid to the government because of enhanced oil operations," Duncan cited.

He also said the number ofjobs that would be created from those projects would be taken under consideration.