The Potential for Carbon Sequestration in the United States

Various analyses suggest that avoiding future climate-related damage by starting to reduce the atmospheric concentration of CO2 would have greater benefits than costs. Options for doing that include not only curbing activities that generate emissions but also sequestering CO2 for example, by encouraging its absorption from the atmosphere into vegetation and soil (biological sequestration) and by trapping CO2 at power plants and industrial facilities before it is emitted and injecting it into underground storage sites (a process known as carbon dioxide capture and storage, or CCS). This paper looks at the methods, potential scale, and possible costs of both types of carbon sequestration. It also examines the particular role that sequestration could play in the context of the full range of possible actions to mitigate greenhouse-gas emissions.