Each day, carbon dioxide emitted by Georgia Power’s coal, oil and gas plants is released into the atmosphere, where it will stay for hundreds of years and heat the planet. Last year, the utility quietly took steps to explore an alternative. Contractors hired by Georgia Power drilled holes into the Earth’s crust at three locations in rural Georgia, some more than a mile deep. Their goal? To see whether the formations below are suitable for “geologic carbon sequestration,” a method that could permanently lock away the company’s greenhouse gas emissions. 

Carbon capture and storage technology has its detractors, and significant environmental and cost questions around it exist. But major scientific reports have found it may be necessary to limit global warming. 

Felix Herrmann, a computational seismologist and professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and the School of Computational Science and Engineering, agrees. 

“It’s not a silver bullet,” Herrmann said. “But the reason why I’m an advocate for this, frankly, is I think it’s a bit naive to think we can switch off of oil and gas tomorrow.”